Family Matters

Florida Trip Photos

In September I met a friend of mine, Sue Coureton, in Florida for a relaxing week on the beach.  So we spent more time running around than we did relaxing, but it was still a blast.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

 
This is a picture of the beach from inside the condo.

 
Seriously, I don't think there is anything more relaxing than sitting on the beach, feeling the wind blow across your face and hearing the waves roll into shore.

 
Next summer I want to give this a try.  This is sail-boarding on the beach.  You can see the guy (right) on the wheeled board being pulled along the beach by the sail (upper right).

We took a drive through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge; the photos below are from that drive.

 
This is an alligator trail through the marsh.

 
A submerged alligator, you can just see the eyes are above water.  Cool, huh!??!

 
This view is of the Haulover Canal and is a known area that manatees stay.  However, we did not see any the day we visited.  However, it really is a beautiful area to just enjoy God's creation.

This is one of my worst nightmares of all time... a ginormous spider that's out in the open to "get" on me!  Argh!

 
An armadillo at the Canaveral National Seashore.  We drove into the CNS just about the time we are closing, but this is definitely on my "must vist" list for next year.

 
The sunset photo was taken at the Canaveral National Seashore in Titusville.

The photo below was taken during an airboat ride.  This is about the only good scenery shot I took; not one of my better photography days.  LOL...

This was back at the condo, Sue and I were fixing dinner.  We were trying recipes out of Sue's diabetes cookbook, she was recently diagnosed.

 

The photos below were taken during our visit to NASA. 

 
These are wild pigs that are on the NASA grounds.  The two pigs on the left were actually the babies and the one on the right is mamma.

 

 
This is the crawler and is used to move the shuttle to the launch pads.

 
This is one of the launch pads.

 
This is me touching a moon rock.  It actually felt like metal.

 
This may look like an unusual picture, but I'm actually capturing the fence.  You will find these around most of the parking lots.  It is to keep the ALLIGATORS out!  Wouldn't you be surprised if you went out to your car and the door was blocked by a gator!?  LOL...  The fence is about 8 feet tall and curved over because a gator could actually climb over a straight fence.

 
This is the decommissioned Enterprise shuttle. 

 
This is the inside of the Enterprise shuttle.

 
This is one of my favorite "astronaut" photos taken on the moon.  Pretty cool.

The photo below is a mailbox we passed on the way to NASA.  Hysterical!  I wonder if this is something that Keith Needham could do?

 

The next couple of photos were milestones met on the trip.  My car turned 10,000 miles on my way driving from Florida to my mom's in Tennessee.  Hard to believe I have that many miles on my car already.

 

 
 

Trip Update: Day 5 - 7

Dad and I made it back to Kansas on Friday evening about 4:00 p.m. Central.  We traveled a total of 4,045 miles; we traveled through nine states - Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas.  We were gone 12 days and stayed in a total of 10 different hotels (we stayed in one hotel two nights).

(In case you are wondering, this turned out to be a not so good time for me to visit Uncle Melvin.  So rather than go on to LA, we circled back through Colorado and came back to home.)

I did a pretty fair job of keeping Facebook updated, but not so good on the blog.  (It's so much easier to load photos onto Facebook versus the blog.)  So I'm going to try and get the blog updated over the next couple of days.

Day 5 - Sheridan WY to Billings MT

This morning, Dad decided he wanted to go back to the King Western Store in Sheridan and buy some of those bits he looked over the day prior; he ended up buying two.

Then we took off for Billings MT.  We stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (aka Custer's Last Stand).  This place is so cool.  They have a road along the top of the ridge (about 5 miles), that shows where Custer's men separated into three groups to attack Sitting Bull's village.  They had information throughout the 5 miles that showed were the various battles and skirmishes occurred.  They had headstones for both Calvary (white colored) and Native American (clay colored) in the locations were bodies were found and if they knew the name it was on the headstone, also.

Dad kept telling me as I'm traipsing around taking photos to watch out because we are in rattlesnake country.  Funny thing was, he was the one who almost stepped on one.  Luckily we were walking together and I heard the snake rattling and I grabbed down and pulled him backwards.  I'm not sure who was more freaked - Dad or the snake.  LOL!

We saw ALOT of prong horn deer on the way through Montana.  It amazed me that they just STOOD where they were.  They weren't running like our deer do.  I'm sure I mentioned that when we saw them on our trip to Farmington, NM in the summer of 2008 - but I still find it amazing.  When we got to Billings, I made Dad take me down to the Yellowstone River for some photos.  I have to say Dad was a pretty good trooper about trying to get me where I wanted to go for photos.  I can't tell you how many times I'd say "Dad stop!"  And he would stop and THEN ask, "What for?"  Sometimes he'd laugh out loud and sometimes he'd just shake his head and "what" I was photographing (like some interesting road signs).  Who would have thought that the same man who made us (okay, Julie) ride across three states before stopping to let her go to the bathroom would be the same man who would stop to let me take a photo of a road sign?  LOL!  Don't tell me you can't teach an old dog a new trick! 

After photographing Yellowstone River, we checked into our hotel and then we headed to a local restaurant to meet up with Aaron King.  Aaron and Bret were in the same grade and Aaron has been a long-time family friend.  It was great to catch up with him and find out what he has been up to.

 

(Dad checking out the wall of bits at the King Western Store.)

 

(The rattle snake that Dad nearly stepped on.)

 

(The southern ridge were some of Custer's men took to enter the Native American village.)

 

(Dad looking the cemetery where Custer and most of his men were killed.)

 

(This is the Native American memorial for those who lost their lives in the battle.  It is called "Peace Through Unity.)

 

(These are the prong horn deer I was talking about.  They did look up when we stopped, but they didn't take off.)

 

(This is one of the "many" photos I took of the Yellowstone River in Billings, MT.)

Day 6 - Billings to Lewistown, Black Eagle, and Great Falls (all MT)

Before leaving Billings we went across the river to "Four Dances Nature Area."  It was on the bluffs overlooking the river.  Dad didn't feel like hiking, but I wanted to see that view so off I took. 

The first couple of photos are just cool images (fence and tree).

The next two images are taken of the river from atop the bluffs.  It was a stunning view, to say the least.

After leaving Billings, we drove to Lewistown.  This is where we lived when I went to kindergarten (Fall 1968 to Spring 1969).  We drove around for several hours trying to find where we lived.  We even called Mom to see if she remember.  No luck, Dad said it had changed so much he didn't recognize anything.  He thought he would be able to find a landmark and then drive right to it.  No luck... to say he was frustrated was a little bit of an understatement.  So we took off and headed for Black Eagle, the town where Julie was born.  We got into town just about dark, so we got a hotel room and planned to explore more the next morning.

 

(This photo was taken on our drive from Billings to Lewistown.)

Day 7 - Around Black Eagle and Great Falls and a brief foray into Yellowstone National Park

Black Eagle is the town we lived in when Julie was born.  Dad didn't have any luck finding our house there either.  He thinks it was torn down to build part of the industrial section.  I told Julie not to romanticize her birthplace, it is kind of a crappy little town.  LOL... It is across the Missouri River from Great Falls which is a much nicer town.  Julie can lay a little claim to it, because she was born in the hospital there.  We also visited the spring on the river and the falls for which Great Falls takes its name.

 

(This spring dumps 15 million gallons of nearly pure water into the Missouri River EVERY day!  Not only is that amazing, it's a very pretty little spot on the river, too.)

 

(These are the falls for which the town of Great Falls takes its name.)

 

(This is the old section of the hospital.  Dad said this was the only section there when Julie was born.)

After driving around and checking out the old stomping grounds, we headed off for Gardiner, MT.  This is the closest town to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  We headed into the park for about an hour.  Okay, I could live here... seriously.  In one hour we saw a herd of elk in Mammoth Hot Springs (one of the residential areas for the park workers), a water fall, hot springs, and some of the most incredible views I have ever seen.

 

(A view of Yellowstone after just entering the park.)

 

(A herd of elk wandering around Mammoth Hot Springs.)

 

(Undine Falls)

 

(Some deer grazing along the road.)

 

(A bull elk walking through a sage covered area in Mammoth Hot Springs, calling to his girls.  He was absolutely magnificent.)

It was starting to get dark after just an hour of driving around (only about 10 miles into the park); so we headed back to Gardiner and checked into a hotel.

Day 4 - Thurs 10.15.09 - Sheridan WY

Today Dad was in heaven!  The only thing we did all day today was visit the saddle shops, western stores and leather stores in Sheridan.

We started the day by visiting the custom saddle shop of Don Butler.  He does some amazing work.  He had one saddle on display that just won "best of show" at a competition in Wichita Falls, Texas.  He closed his retail store in Sheridan, but he had three saddles in progress.

Then we went to King's Saddelry and Rope Store.  Dad eyed the saddles and ropes.  I headed straight for the Don King Western Museum.  Let me just say if you are ever within driving distance of Sheridan, Wyoming, you have got to stop.  I think we ended up spending a little over 2 hours here.  Al Stohlman's widow donated all of their leather stamping and wood carving items to the museum.  Stohlman is the man who wrote all of the instruction books for the Tandy Leather Company.  As well as writing his own instruction books along with his wife, Ann.

Below are a few photos I took in the museum and the last is a shot of all the ropes in the store. 

 

 
 Then we went to Sheridan Leather Outfitters were they sold anything and everything you need to make any kind of leather good you can imagine.

Then we headed to Tom Balding's Bits and Spur Shop.  Tom and his team make their bits and spurs right there on site.  Dad got to take a tour of their shop and watch them work.  They cut out all of their silver by hand, the work is beautiful.

Dad had a tooth ache today and took some Benedryl.  We went back to the hotel fairly early and he is checking out his eyelids.  LOL!
 

We spent the rest of the evening in our room.  Dad rested and I worked on getting the photos organized, answering emails, posting to the blog and Facebook.

Day 3 / Wed 10.14.09 - Rapid City SD and Sheridan WY

Wednesday we spent the morning around Rapid City, SD visiting Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse site - the latter was actually a drive-by ;-D - then we headed north on I-90 toward Sheridan, WY.  We made a quick stop at Exit 48 to visit Ray's Western Wear and Saddelry's second store (we visited their East store on Tuesday).

Then we we took another little detour off of I-90 to visit Devil's Tower.  Congress designated the area a U.S. forest reserve in 1892 and in 1906 Devil's Tower became the nation's first national monument.  I find that a little stunning, with all of the beautiful scenery back East, this was the first monument.  Crazy!

The scenery in Western South Dakota into Eastern Wyoming is just stunning.  You go from rolling plains to low mountains.  There are antelope and deer just grazing alongside of cattle in the enormous pastures.

The first group of photos below are from our visit to Mount Rushmore.

 
(It was drizzling yesterday morning and it looked like the president's were crying.)

 

 
(This mountain goat was lounging just off of the walkway with all the flags.  Most of the people there were just walking by and didn't even notice the two of them laying there.  Truth be told, I wouldn't have noticed them if Dad hadn't pointed them out. ;-D )

 
(The photo above was taken after leaving the monument grounds and driving around the corner.)

This photo is from the entrance to the Crazy Horse monument.  We didn't actually go in, everyone we talked to said what you can see from the road is about as good as it gets.

The photo below is Devil's Tower.

 A photo of the scenery... a farmstead against the mountain range.

 

Day 2 / Tues 10.13.09 - Traveling across SD

Today was really cold and breezy.  We started out by visiting The Falls on the Sioux River from which Sioux Falls derives its name.  Then we went to the Corn Palace, a very cool western store in Oacoma, then it was off to the Badlands and lastly we stopped at Wall Drug before heading to the hotel in Rapid City, SD.

Here are a few pictures from our travels Tuesday.

This first four pictures are from The Falls on the Sioux River in Sioux Falls.

 

 

These are photos of the Corn Palace.  This place in Mitchell, SD is really interesting; there are murals on the inside and outside of the building are made of different colored corn as well as bunches of milo and grasses like rye.  They were redoing the outside murals while we were there.

 

The next group of pictures are from the Badlands.

Our last stop was at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.  Wall Drug has signs all over the place.  You don't really know why you're stopping but after seeing at least 100 signs along side the road, you just have to go see what it is.  (It's kind of like the Rock City signs all over the south.)  It is a really big drug store plus tourist trap.  But it was a quick, fun stop. 

 
 
 
   

Day 1 - to Sioux Falls, SD

Today Dad and I took off for our two-week road trip.  Our first stop was Sious Falls, SD.  We pretty much stayed on the interstate today because there weren't any side trips planned.

However, we did see some large wind turbines at Rock Port, MO and I took a little side trip to get closer so I could get some pictures.  My gosh, they are HUGE!

I did a little internet research and Rock Port is the first community in the United States to be 100% wind-powered.  Cool!

 

 
(This is just one blade.)

 
(This is Dad at the far right end of the blade.  I'm telling you, it's huge!)
 
 
  

Pictures from the canoe trip at Bennett Springs

In mid-July several of us traveled to Bennett Springs State Park in Lebanon, Missouri.  It was probably the best place we've ever gone canoeing.  The camp sites were immaculate.  The park also had cabins and hotel rooms located through-out the park.  (The motel rooms were clustered about 10 together in various locations.)

We canoed on the Niagua River; a spring-fed river.  The upside of that is that there is always water in the river and you don't have to worry about porting (carrying) your canoe in low spots when you canoe late in the summer.  The downside... it was pretty darn cold (someone told us 53 degrees year round).

The park has a swimming pool, a nice store, a fish hatchery, and a nature museum. 

Here are some pictures from the trip.

 

 
A couple of group shots prior to the canoe trip.

 
Kolbee's first catch of the day.

 
Hmmm... let's send all the kids down the river in one canoe... NOT!  (This was purely for photo shoot purposes; no children were endangered in the making of this photo.  LOL...)

 
Karsten finds a "ginormous" rock in the river.

 
Dad standing on a rock in the river.

 
Kolbee and Tommy with a couple of the kids (Karsten and one of the Odgen girls).

 
Kodee, Kasen and Hannah

 
Quentin jumping off the bluff.

 
Hmmm... wonder what Kodee and Jed are trying to find.

 
Kaden jumping off the bluff.

 
Paul gave this fish to Tanner; wonder if Tanner thinks this is lunch.

 
Edward Lee, Julie, Kaden and Quentin

We were nearly to the end of the trip when we ran into a really bad storm.  The wind was blowing so hard that we couldn't make any forward progress and you couldn't see it was raining so hard and blowing right in our faces.  We all pulled over for about 20-30 minutes to ride out the storm.  I'm not sure what was scarier - being in an aluminum boat on the water with lightning flashing around or being on the shore under the trees with lightning flashing around.  Needless to say we all survived, no worse for the experience and we only had to go about 1/2 - 1 mile to the end of the trip.

 
These are the group of motel rooms that we stayed in - Jed's family, Bret's family, Tommy, Abbie, Dad, Julie and myself.  The McKees and Ogdens camped at one of the campgrounds.

 
Julie, Brena and Quentin checking out the fishery.

 
Something you won't see often, Mollie running from a camera!

 
One of the beautiful spots on the river.

The photos below were taken the first night around BSSP. 

 
Quentin, Brena and Molli on their way to the pool.  The only downside is they didn't make it to the pool before closing time.

 
Natalie, Kate and I went hiking on one of the nature trails.  This is a dry creek bed.

 
Here are Natalie and Kate on the trail.  It was so incredibly humid we were all "glistening."

 

 
A couple of beautiful flowers on the trail.

 
It's Tarzan.... err... make that Kate swinging from one of the fines on the trail.

 
Something you won't see anywhere but here - Jed and Bret in shorts.

Hopefully, we will get more family members to go on the next canoe trip.  Nothing is better than hanging out with people that you love and playing on the water.

Family Canoe Trip Planned for July 15-17

Okay, the first hurdle is over.  We have established some dates.  We are going to head out on Wednesday, July 15 then canoe on Thursday, July 16 and then break camp and head home on Friday, July 17.

I'm still working on figuring out where we are going, so don't ask me that yet.  Just getting a date was challenging enough. LOL...

I will be looking for a campground with tent sites, camper sites (electric, water) as well as cabins.

If you are going to attend please let me know by next Wednesday, June 10.  Also let me know if you want a tent site, camper site, or cabin.

I will be gathering information on places, cost to canoe/raft, etc. over the next couple of days and will be following up on the blog in the very near future.

Back in Kansas!

I made it back to Kansas Saturday morning about 10:40 a.m.  That's about when I drove into Grandpa Edward's driveway.  (I came back a little earlier than planned so that I could attend Mollie and Brena's dance recital on Saturday evening.)

I visited with Dad and Grandpa for a little bit, then I drove up to the McKee's.  I hugged the boys - except Kolbee, he was off golfing - and got a quick tour of the farm.  They showed me their new Wii, their bucket calf, and their kitties.  Then Kodee, Hannah, Kaden, Kasen and Karsten followed me down to Prescott to help me unpack.

The plan was we would unload my truck and return the car carrier so that I could back the UHAUL van up to the garage.  So, I pull up on the side of the yard to unload the truck.  Low and behold, I'm immediately STUCK in the mud.  Not even in Prescott 10 minutes and I have to call Dad to come "unstick" me!  LOL... So he came down and pulled me out - I think he loved the fact that his Chevy was towing a Ford!

(Kodee shot this photo of Dad pulling me out of the side yard.)

Dad headed back to finish his chores and the McKees, Hannah, and I got the car carrier returned to UHAUL in Fort Scott.  Then we all went to McDonalds for lunch.  Then back to the house to unpack the van.  Everyone - even the little guys - pitched in and helped unload the van.  It was completely unloaded within about an hour.  I was pretty amazed.

(Oh... Kodee, don't lock us in this van!)

Then the McKees and Hannah headed home, I unpacked some clothes, and then took a nap.  (I'd stopped at Boonville MO the night before about 2:30am and slept for about 4 hours and headed back out.  To say I was pretty exhausted is an understatement.) 

Dad called to tell me Katie had my recital ticket and I told him I was going to lay down for about 45 minutes for a nap.  He called me after 45 minutes to make sure I was up.  Thank heavens he called because I was totally out of it. 

Needless to say, I have been on the go since getting back.  The recital Saturday night followed by dinner at Bret and Katie's house. Then Sunday I went to Sunday school and church followed by lunch at the Prescott City Hall (raising money for Coal Centre Days).  Then Dad followed me down to Fort Scott and I turned in the UHAUL van and then we went to Wal-mart so I could get some groceries.  I did take a nap after putting away the groceries and didn't wake up until after 9:30pm.  I signed onto the laptop and checked emails.  I forgot to take my phone off "silent" after chuch so I had several calls/texts to return. 

This morning Craw-Kan showed up bright and early and I now have cable, DSL and my home phone turned back on.  Woohoo! 

Family canoe trip this summer anyone???

Hey gang, I got a text message from Katie the other day.  She and Natalie are wanting to go on a canoe trip this summer.  So I thought I'd get the ball rolling and see who else is interested.

If you are interested, leave a comment and suggestions for when.  I'd like to get a decision pretty quick so I can let Katie know, she has to submit her vacation early.

Just to remind you how much fun these trips are, I've thrown in a photo of the McKee boys fishing on our 2007 canoe trip.

Hugz from SC!