Our updates for all of you

Not a whole lot going on lately! I mean, Stacy and I do have some big news for us. Oldest daughter Sandy has cashed in her copious air miles from all her on the job flights (like the one she's on right now to Florida, and she just told me on the phone that she gets back to L.A. tonight then flies out to India on Saturday!) for tickets for Stacy and me, to, in late November, go with her and Erik to Germany for 10 days! Now this will be the first time for me to be off the Continent, I've been to Canada quite a few times now but never someplace over a 10 hours flight away! I think this will be Sandy and Erik's forth or fifth trip over, and Stacy had spent about one year there over a couple of years span in her teens. So at only four months away Stacy's in full trip prep mode! We're counting on Sandy's suggestions as well as all the information available on-line to try to make it the best possible experience. Although Sandy has said that knowledge of the German la...

A couple of pictures I took on a short hike Stacy and I took yesterday(Sunday 7/19). It was actually a great weekend with dry not humid weather and comfortable temps until late afternoon when it got up to the low 90's. These are pictures of the Upper Snow Creek Falls and then the Lower Snow Creek Falls about a quarter mile from each other North West of town about 15 miles. The weather was still comfortable the mosquitoes really bad at the lower falls , but a good breeze at the larger area of the upper falls made it more comfortable to stay a while there. And NO one else was there the entire time we were, another reason we like it here so much. No crowds at most places. In the last post I was talking about the 40th anniversary (today's date) of the first lunar landing. While searching around the NASA website it had a link to get a print out of the hours you might get to see the International Space Station go by after sunset. We got to see it pass over 4 times, once on Friday ...

My two cents is that the ability to 'relive' the adventure from 40 years ago right this minute is pretty great!!!!! In July 1969 I was 11 years old, would be 12 in September, living in Redlands California and on summer break from school. We were all caught up in the excitement of the flight. I remember pretty much watching stuff on the evening news about it in addition to some of the numerous TV specials because of the scope of the event. Being 11 though I wasn't as interested then as I am now! I do remember us all watching the fuzzy black and white images on the TV that Sunday night of July 20th, 1969. It was truly amazing to see, just wish we could have seen it better! I remember almost straining to try to clearly see Armstrong as he came down the leg of the LEM (it was still the L unar E xcursion M odule back then, they dropped the 'E' later) and did his "step for a man". Even with the new tech its still pretty fuzzy, but the 'remastered' foot...

Last Monday was as it had been for a couple of days, hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms. There was a cold front working its way in that was going to change everything for a couple of days and it did, a lot of rain and in the upper 50's yesterday, 59 and overcast right now at 8:26 am. Monday night was predicted some heavy T-storms to move in the area and an alert was issued from 8:50 pm to 2:00 am for the storms. Well nothing had happened by the time we'd gone to sleep at 10 pm, then at 11:33 pm, we were awoken by the sound of a strike so close it almost sounded like the house was hit! I was wide awake from that and fully expected the power to go out but it didn't. Stacy went back to sleep so fast she'd forgotten about it. I was kept awake and kept awake for hours by nearby thunder. I'd just start falling asleep again and some thunder would reverberate through the area and house, and almost feel like an earthquake in the low frequencies. I counted and nothin...

The last group starts with a view from the passenger car as the steam engine, a 4-6-4, pulls out from the mid ride stop. The first two cars of this three car train, are converted flat cars for toristas like us. The first car is covered, the second is all open air. The ride in the passenger car was much better than the jarring ride of the flat car. I told Stacy before we rode again to try the passenger car, "if we were on a cross country trip on this I'd be motion sick the whole way!". Not so in the passenger car though. The ride lasts about 30 minutes. A better look inside the passenger car. The last photo is really one of the first, Stacy standing by a boulder marker at the recreated North West Mounted Police Fort called Fort Steele, that created a town. Named after Samuel Steele, in photos he didn't look like a very happy guy! The building behind Stacy is the original fort headquarters. That was our July 4th 2009 weekend!

This group starts with a photo of Stacy's father (red hat) taking a ride on the Draft horse drawn wagon around town with one of the kids in period dress next to him. Our 'camp' back at the Fort Steele Campground. Even with all the shade it was HOT and humid! This time of year, starts to get light around 3:30 am and stays light til after 10:00 pm! Afternoon and evening temps in the low 90's kept us pretty much in the air-conditioned trailer in the evenings. We did sit out a little when it was breezy though. Stacy in the last row of seats in the passenger car of the train ride. The seats were filled with horse hair as cushion material. We were told that this car had been an average or "economy class" car of the Canadian Pacific Rail Road. Nice big windows but not too much ventilation.

This photo group starts with Stacy learning the art of Panning for Gold from "Nugget Norm" at Fort Steele. Did you know that the circular 'swirl' way often seen on TV shows is actually wrong?! According to Norm, it's a side to side motion and dipping to remove silt. It takes a long time too! Still sifting, Stacy was able to find one good sized piece as well as several smaller ones. Don't think it would be worth quitting and taking up a life of Gold Panning, it was interesting to learn. Looking across the street at one of the three churches in this small community of over 60 buildings as well as a home with other buildings seen on nearby streets. A look inside the one room classroom of the school house. Information said that the school teacher from the era made a very "respectable" sum of $75.00 a month. She was not only to teach a basic education to all grade level kids, she also taught personal hygiene, sex education (remember this was Victorian ti...

The next 4 posts are selected photos taken from our trip to Fort Steele, British Columbia for the holiday weekend. This is the main entrance to Fort Steele, with gift shop, small restaurant, and tickets purchased inside. You exit out the left to see the site, to the right to ride the steam train. Last photo for this group, Stacy going into the dress makers shop. All hand made, dresses, suits, hats, all available if you what that best dressed 1890's look!

Since Stacy and I had Friday the 3rd off we had decided to travel up into Canada for the holiday this year. It was only the 2nd time we'd ever not been home on a 4th of July. First time was way back in 1994 when Stacy, Laura, Sean and myself were all at the Gold Wing Road Riders Association 'convention' called "Wing Ding". That year it was in Albuquerque New Mexico. We'd decided to take our trailer and go visit a town near Cranbrook, Canada called Fort Steele, about 90 miles or two hours away. On a previous trip a few years ago we had gone right by it and had talked of going back just to visit the town. With many original, some recreated and some relocated old buildings, Fort Steele recreates the original town as it was as a North West Mounted Police fort and town in the 1890's. The people that work there are in period attire and even the kids, and there were quite a few that work there with their parents, are all quite versed in the dress, customs and lan...

Just an update on the garden I'd talked about about a month ago. Stacy has been taking great care of it with some people from work helping her out during some lunch breaks. The first photo shows the two plots with the corn growing pretty well in them This plot shows some corn with some peppers and squash in there also. Last picture is of the corn. Almost three feet tall now.