OH, NO! Don't Let the Rains Come Down

For you youngsters out there, those are the words to a song released in 1964 by the Serendipity Singers.  I know you feel like you are probably a better person now for knowing that.

But it also kinda described the past two months for us.  August in Arkansas was unusually cool, cloudy and somewhat rainy.

The cooler temperatures motivated me to put a new coat of wax on the trailer and with the use of Scott's 10" buffer, what took me a week in Florida two years ago only took 4 days this time.  Also, being retired and not having that job thing to get in the way helped too.

We did have enough nice days to do more boating and spend quality time on the lake with family and friends.

And then Hurricane Harvey came along and dumped 51" of rain on Houston.

The company from which I retired called and wanted me to work the flood.  It was estimated that as many as 500,000 cars in southeast TX were flooded and needed to be taken to the salvage yards.  After much waffling (I was really in the swing of being retired and enjoying it), I decided to do it.

Things are winding down now but those first two weeks of 16 hour work days made me wonder if I had made a good decision.  In the long run, I'm glad I did it.

In the midst of frantic phone calls and a deluge of emails and text messages, we managed to pack everything up and drive to Arlington on Sept 5.  Unfortunately for Jane, my work level has made our time in Arlington less enjoyable than we wanted it to be.  We have managed to catch up with long-time friends and work in our annual doctor appointments and with things slowing down to controlled pandemonium instead all out chaos in Houston, we managed to help Brian get his new house move-in ready.

Green and white striped wall paper had to go.  Jane tried painting over it at first, but it bubbled up so she started ripping it off.






























Before and after Brian and I painted the garage.

He is moved in now.  Not quite settled but that takes a while.  We are really happy for him.  At the ripe old age of 39 he was ready to leave apartment living behind.   In a couple of days we will be leaving Arlington behind and going to the Houston area.  The RV park where we have reservations is in a city (Dickinson)  that was hard-hit by the floods but the park was not damaged.  We will be there for a couple of months spending time with Angie, Chris, Caleb and Hannah.

It didn't take long after we checked in at the park in Dickinson for the kids to come over and enjoy the pool.

 Looking forward to making lots of happy family memories over the next two months.

Warp Speed, Mr. Scott !!

Wow, talk about time flying.  What happened to June and July?  Our time in Arlington just flew by.  Maybe it was the DIY project.  We decided to replace the carpet in our living area with vinyl plank flooring, but we hired a flooring company to do that.  After we set the date to have it done, we decided to paint the walls and re-cover the cornice boards before the flooring was done.  The whole process took almost 3 weeks, but here is the before and after.

Shortly after we finished the "remodel" (if you can call it that when you only have 300 sq. ft. of living space) Chris, Angie and the kids came to visit.

We did manage to make it to the Rangers game on July 4th

Hannah is up to bat!

And Uncle Brian made it over to the RV park for some swim time

We left for Arkansas with Caleb and Hannah and couldn't wait to get there and put Grampa's boat in the water.  It's a long drive, but the kids did great.  Thank goodness for electronics and naps.

We were looking forward to doing some swimming and tubing.  And we did. Caleb was the king of tubing!  Hannah went once with Gram but it wasn't her favorite.  Whereas Caleb was constantly giving the thumbs up (go faster), Hannah kept giving the thumbs down (go slower).  Caleb also learned to ski (thanks Stu and Marty for the loan of starter skis!) and that was way better than tubing.  Something about that motor running and going through the water put Hannah to sleep every time.  Picture of Caleb tubing and Hannah napping on Gram.

Caleb about to jump off a ledge at Bidwell Point that is normally a 30 foot drop to the water.

It has rained a lot in Arkansas this year!

My nephew Scott and his wife Amy had everyone at their house for dinner one night which we served in Scott's new 50x60ft. "equipment barn"/ garage / shop / dining hall and anything else.  It was practically a family reunion with the Illinois Hursts, Arkansas Sandell's and us Texans/Nomads.

Chris and Angie came a week later and stayed for a few days then took the grands and headed out.

After the Lynches went back to Texas, we had a visit from the Florida branch of the family. 

Jimmie and Ed came to escape the heat and humidity of Florida and picked a great week to be here.

In addition to our usual boating trips on the lake, we spent a day going to Top Of The Rock near Branson, MO. 



It has Amish-style bridges, nature preserve, waterfalls, a driving range designed by Arnold Palmer and a par 3 course designed by Jack Nicklaus.  The Amish in Pennsylvania dismantled a barn that was on Arnold Palmer's farm in Latrobe,PA re-assembled it here and made a restaurant inside.  It was developed by the founder of Bass Pro Shop.

In our travels around the country, we've seen some pretty spectacular sunsets, but Lake Norfork can hold it's own when it comes to displaying the beauty of God's creation.

We'll be here in Arkansas until the 5th of Sept and then it's back to Arlington for our annual doctor appointments before heading to the Houston area to be near the grandkids, oh yeah, and Chris and Angie, for a couple of months. Our campsite in Arkansas is unusual since we are staying in an RV park that is still under construction.  They hoped to be open by July but unending rain and delays on some permits kept that from happening.  But we had already talked to them about staying so they made room for us making us their first (and only, for the time being) customers.  We are not on the lake as we have been in past years but we haven't had to move every two weeks as is required in the Corps of Engineers parks on the lake.  And not being made to move every two weeks is a very good thing.

Carpe Diem, BABY!!!

We spent 3 days in Merced, CA and we can testify that there is not much to do in that neck of the woods, so we rested up.  And we needed it to prepare for the next two days of driving/riding.

We drove to Brenda, AZ (halfway point to Tucson) spent one night, the next day drove the rest of the way to Tucson.  It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive, but took 7 hours because of a truck that caught on fire on I-10 and blocked all the eastbound lanes.  It took 3.5 hours to go 28 miles, ughhh!

Finally, made it to Tucson where we had an appointment to get a minor body work issue resolved on the house, but while there, found out one of our A/C units needs to be replaced.  It was reaching the high 90s and some days 100, which will remove any doubts about whether or not your A/C is functioning properly and ours wasn't.

We couldn't stay and wait for the new A/C unit to arrive because we were due in Flagstaff on Friday (5/26).  That was OK because it was 67 degrees when we arrived in Flagstaff.  It was in the 70s and 80s all week and that was fine with us.

Bill (Jane's brother from Ohio for those of you who don't know) & wife, LuAnn arrived in Flagstaff on Saturday in time to have dinner with us.

The next 7 days were filled with doing everything we could think of to do in the Flagstaff and surrounding area.  I think we did just about everything you can do within 150 miles of Flagstaff.










Sunday we went to Sedona for our first day of sightseeing.

Monday was Memorial Day and we started out by going to the Flagstaff Aquaplex for some indoor Pickleball.  Bill had heard of it, but had not played and was anxious to learn.  The four of us played for almost 3 hours.  The facility is run by the city of Flagstaff and was very impressive.  It had a full fitness facility, climbing wall, mini indoor water park, basketball courts (converted to Pickleball during specific times) and more.

After lunch we went to downtown Flagstaff for the holiday weekend arts and crafts festival and to take in the shops, stores and restaurants.   We discovered that a man named Weatherford from Weatherford , Texas, was instrumental in the early development of Flagstaff. 







Tuesday was our trip to the Grand Canyon.  We entered from the east, saw the watchtower, went to the south rim and Mather Point, then went to the South Kaibab trail for a hike down to Ooh Aah Point.

 

 

LuAnn had asked prior to our trip, "How long can you stand and look at a hole in the ground?"  But, her first reaction upon seeing it was, "It's so beautiful, I can't breathe."  There were a couple of people we encountered on the hike back up the canyon who, literally, couldn't breath.  Nurse LuAnn offered assistance but everything turned out to be OK after a short time.  It's just that that hike  will make anybody huff and puff for all they're worth.   

And every time Jane would get close to the edge,

which she loved to do, I couldn't breathe.

                                                                             I never get close to the edge unless it is safe. Jane

 

 

We were at the east entrance to the park

at sunset. 

The Colorado River looks so small and tranquil from up here, but I'm sure it's anything but peaceful when you get close.




Even when you've been before, it is still breathtaking and awe inspiring.

This is the watchtower at the east end of the park at sunset.
It is not a really old building but was built to look old to fit in with the surroundings.








We started Wednesday with 2 more hours of Pickleball and then spent the rest of the day catching up on laundry and went bowling Wednesday evening.






Thursday we went to Walnut Canyon, just 10 miles from Flagstaff to see the cliff dwellings.  It was fascinating and something we all were amazed to discover.  It is still hard to imagine how people lived in the sides of the canyon walls 800 years ago.

I don't recall reading anything about the size of the people who lived in this place 800 years ago, but if that doorway is any indication, we've come a long way.

Then, we drove out to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park, 100 miles east of Flagstaff.

The end of a tree trunk, where you can see the quartz which causes the wood to harden and "petrify".






Friday, we got up early and left for a 2 hour drive north to Antelope Canyon, near Page, AZ.  There is an upper and lower canyon.  We toured the lower canyon.  They are both slot canyons, formed by flash floods.

I have to put several pictures here because it's not possible to adequately describe this unique natural wonder.



After about a 10 minute hike from the starting point, we descended a few flights of stairs, 90 feet into the canyon.

We would go through narrow passages and then it would open up into various "rooms".  This one was called the Lion's Den.  Can you see his profile?

  

The flash floods would happen so quickly, people have been caught unprepared and died in this canyon.






They said the flash floods could be from rains several miles away.  Since that time, they've added escape measures and bolted stairways in place that cannot be washed away.









Jane, LuAnn & Bill

We started our tour around 10:30 am, which turned out to be great because the sun overhead was sending light through the canyon and providing amazing color contrasts.

You cannot go through the canyon without being part of a guided tour as this place is on a Navajo Indian reservation. 












The tour took about an hour and Jane, although  claustrophobic, handled the narrow passageways with no problem.



As long as I could look up and see the sky, I was OK with the tight spaces. Jane

When we finished the tour, we decided to drive the few miles to Lake Powell.  After checking out the marina, we decided if we really wanted to see the lake, we needed to do it by boat. 












So, we rented a boat and took our lunch with us and spent a couple hours exploring

. 






The Glen Canyon Dam from the lake side of the Colorado River.  We considered swimming but this water was a bit too "refreshing" and we just dangled our feet off the back of the boat.






On the way back, we stopped at Horseshoe Bend, which is the Colorado River on the other side of the dam from Lake Powell and again marveled at the beauty and uniqueness of God's creation. 



I couldn't help wondering, with no park rangers around, do people come out there with hang-gliders and jump off?  It's 1,000 feet straight down to the river.


We finished off a great week by resting on Saturday since Bill & LuAnn were flying home on Sunday and Jane & I would be driving back to Tucson to get the A/C unit installed.  We taught them how to play Dummy Rummy and enjoyed a great day sitting outside at the picnic table playing cards.

"If the Lord wills, and we live", we'll be back in Arlington on the 8th for a 4 week stay before going to Arkansas for 2 months.

After another spring of frenzied travel to complete our baseball trek, it really sounds good to sit still for a few weeks.  Haven't seen the fam since Christmas and this  mom/gram needs to see her kids/grandkids.

Catch Ya on the Flip Flop!

Ah, remember the days of CB radios?  Smokies givin' "green stamps", convoys and "What's yer handle?"  Well... we're "catchin' ya on the flip flop" (return trip- back to Texas).

First stop, the Oregon coast.  Although the temperature felt cold to us, low 50s, it was sunny.  I have a fascination with lighthouses and Newport, OR, has the tallest lighthouse in Oregon.  Besides the beautiful beach in the picture, there was a beach made entirely of volcanic rocks that had been smoothed by the ocean....millions of rocks.  Through a scope, we saw birds that come to the rocks off the coast to nest and raise a family.  These birds were incredible....the kind you see in exhibits at the zoo.  Also using the rocks, were several harbor seals taking advantage of a rare sunny day.  Watching them move around was pretty funny.  They are rather large and each move required a cumbersome flop on one side or the other.

Then, back to northern California.







We started seeing the snow-covered peak of 14,000 foot Mt. Shasta when we were still 60 miles away.


















We camped at Lake Siskiyou, which is on the opposite side of I-5 and had a great view of the mountain from the campground.

 






We had a beautiful 73 degree day, (halleluja for warm weather) so we went to a waterfall on the McCloud river.  There are three falls on this stretch of the river and this one had the creative and unique name of Middle Falls.  But the name doesn't do justice to these falls that are 50 feet high and over 100 feet wide.

 




This shot was taken from a few hundred feet above the falls.  We hiked down to the river at the bottom of the falls and did a little impromptu rock climbing...well, maybe rock crawling  would be a better way to say it since we crawled over some pretty huge rocks.  The next picture is after we reached the bottom.

There's a guy standing on a log on the left side of the picture.

 

We left Lake Siskiyou just in time.  It was 48 degrees and we bugged out just as it was starting to rain.

 

We made it to Merced, California for a two-day stop over before we go back to Menifee for 4 days.  There is literally nothing to do in Merced, California, so we will rest for a couple of days from all the seven hour drives we have been doing lately.  OK, Jim drives, and I sit....a lot.   One fun thing I can do in the truck is to look up facts about sights and cities we see on the way.  Did you know that there are only a little over 4 million people in all of Oregon?  And 1.5 million of them are in Portland.  Did you know that when you ask Siri a question and her computer mind misunderstands what you say and she thinks you said something off color, she says "I'll pretend I didn't hear that"?  We laughed pretty hard about that one. 

 

 

Off to more adventures.