Chapel of the Holy Dove

Breakfast cooked over the open fire has never been better.  George got up this morning made a fire in our fire pit and cooked bacon over the open fire.   He also cut up a cantaloupe.  Pat scrambled the eggs, Donna cooked the potatoes, peppers, and onions (Bob will do French Toast tomorrow morning).  With the sun shinning and the bluest sky in Arizona the day started perfectly.  When breakfast was over we decided to take a chairlift up to the highest mountain in Arizona.  

Frying the bacon  over the fire pit.  Watch out for the grease splatter George!

On the way to the mountain, we stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Dove, which we discovered on the way back from the Grand Canyon the other day.  The Chapel of the Holy Dove sits on a parcel of land between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.  It was built by Dr. Watson Lacy, a doctor at the Grand Canyon, in 1962.  Although destroyed by fire in 1999, the chapel was rebuilt by a Northern Arizona University student with the help of townspeople and merchants from Flagstaff.  It was named the Chapel of the Holy Dove to acknowledge the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, described in Mathew 3:16 as descending "like a dove" above Jesus in commissioning His earthly ministry as God, Incarnate.  The chapel is open to all, never locked, all the material inside are free and numerous weddings are held in the chapel.

Bob and Donna entering the Chapel of the Holy Dove 

Pat just inside the door of the Chapel

The back of the Chapel

We made it to top of the mountain and to the highest toilet in Arizona.  the views were spectacular.  We saw as far as the Grand Canyon to the north and 100 miles in every direction.

Had to take this picture -- any questions?

That is a fire about 40 miles away.  It grew to about twice its size while we watched.

This must be a record... three posts in three days!  We are really enjoying our time in northern Arizona.  There is so much to see so we decided to stay until next Friday morning.  We still need to drive up to Lake Powell, see the slotted canyons, enjoy cooking over the open fires and of course sip a few beers as we watch the sunset over the horizon.  Don't know if we will post every day but as long as we have a few pictures to share with you and find new and interesting places  to visit...we may post to our blog...hope you enjoy!

  Take extra good care of yourselves.  In life we have noted ...There are people who will disappoint you, try to burden you with their attitude or problems but please remember that you are the master of your own destiny.  We hope you follow your dreams and are not deterred by anyone...remember it is your life and you are responsible to enjoy it to the fullest! 

Sedona Arizona - A beautiful backyard!

We ventured out today to Sedona, AZ which is about 50 miles south of Flagstaff but a world away.  Today was our traveling friend,  Donna's birthday and we treated her to our traditional birthday breakfast.  We drove into Flagstaff and had a wonderful breakfast at the Railroad Cafe; definitely will go back there again before we leave this area.  After breakfast we decided to drive down to Sedona, not knowing what to expect.  The drive down was just outstanding as we drove first through the pine forest and than into the canyons.  When we arrived in Sedona we could not believe the mountains that surround the town. Here our some pictures of the area around Sedona!

The hills behind the ice cream shop!

Overlooking Sedona from the south

Hills just northwest of Sedona

View from the overlook just south of Sedona

Frank Loyd Wright's Church of the Cross

Cathedral Mountain south of town

Always time for shopping or is it always time for sightseeing but shopping is a necessity!

What a great day, walking thru Sedona!  The girls loved the quaint shops and bought a few Christmas gifts for the family while George was in 7th heaven taking in the mountain scenery.  Sedona is unique because whenever you come out of any shop you are greeted with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains.  George is not a shopper so he took about 60 pictures and most of them were from out in front of various stores in town.  We drove south of town to the Church of the Cross and was amazed how it was embedded into the rock yet stood out as a beacon. 

We continue to be amazed at the sights and scenery in northern Arizona.  Tomorrow will hopefully be a day of rest but if the past is any indication of future, we will be on the road exploring the backyards of this beautiful country side.  There is talk among the four of us that we may have to spend another couple of days here, it sure would not make us mad!

 To our friends, Tom and Maryann Graue, we are glad you are back in the USA.  We read your blog and know that your Canadian adventure will provide you with a lifetime of memories.  To George and Sue Summerfield, your blog on the sailing adventure to the Canadian Gulf islands was amazing. You both have a wonderful story telling ability that let us, the reader, go along with you on your adventures.  We are jealous, in a good way!  We will continue to tag along with you through your blog entries.

As always we hope this post finds you happy, healthy and enjoying life to the fullest.   We hope our friends and family continue to follow our adventures as we travel the backyards of America.  For our part we will continue to post a few of the pictures we take and add a little commentary of our travels (it also appears that George has added his own little soapbox commentaries but we will try to curb and control that aspect of his entries).  Until the next time, enjoy life and stay healthy!

"The Big Ditch"

We arrived in Albuquerque and decided to spend a few days with our very good friends Mike and Rita.  As always they were perfect hosts and even shared their granddaughter and grandson with us for a couple of days (since they know how much we miss Kasey and Karsten).  When in Albuquerque we always try to go out to our favorite restaurants but this time Mike and Rita decided to have a cook out at their house so of course we said .... YES!  Like many of our friends around the country Mike and Rita are really special and we love to just hang out with them.  But, we are on a mission and we had to get on the road, so we all met at our favorite breakfast restaurant, Milly's for a Sunday meal before we headed down I-40 to the Arizona and the Grand Canyon.

Sunday breakfast at Milly's with Mike and Rita, Bob and Donna and Pat and George (taking the pictures of course)

The scenery on the way to Arizona is spectacular along I-40.  It is a shame that pictures do not do it justice.  But the beauty of the trip will pale in comparison to nature's gem - The Grand Canyon or as Bob calls it " a big ditch"!

A view from the motor home along I-40

We arrived at Fort Tuthill, an Air Force famcamp just outside of Flagstaff, AZ in the middle of a rain storm only to find out that our sites were to say the least unsatisfactory.  Bob and Donna's motor home was mired in mud and our site was so small the back wheels were on one side of a hill and the front tires were up the hill on the other end.  Definitely not up to the Air Force standards and not even close to anything we find acceptable.  So in the middle of the rain storm we left Fort Tuthill to find a better place to stay.  We found an excellent campground 13 miles away and can you believe it, it is a Arizona National Guard post.  It is called Pine View and it is beautiful with two camp hosts that seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome, even in the rain!  The views from our camp site and the smell of pine trees bring nature into focus every morning.

Pat having breakfast at Pine View Campground

We have decided to stay a minimum of 5 days maybe more at Pine View simple because we can, it is beautiful and the people are so nice.  From our campground to the Grand Canyon is a little over 50 miles so after breakfast we headed north to see what can only be call the most beautiful scenery on earth, The Grand Canyon.  It is an amazing sight and a person could spend their whole lifetime here and never see it all.  It bears repeating that what man makes with all his knowledge and technology can never hold a candle to what God makes and we just call it ....  nature!

Just the two of us on the edge of the Canyon!

No picture can do the Grand Canyon justice!

Just another Wow!!!  They call it "Grand" for a reason!

We love to take pictures of our backyard and pinch ourselves every time we visit one of these awe inspiring places in the USA.  Donna, our traveling friend, said the other day, how fortunate we four are to be able travel this county, to see all these wonderful places and to make every trip better and better.  Another one of our friends once said to us as we were all sitting on top of one of the mountain peaks in the Rockies and enjoying the splendor of the views, " I wonder what the rich people are doing".  We think we can answer him now....We are admiring this great country and its beautiful backyards!!

 America really is a beautiful country, we are all rich and fortunate to be able to live here, enjoy it and taste the freedoms of being Americans!  God has truly blessed this country with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.  Whether you are on the coastal waters of Washington state, the cornfields of Ohio, or sitting on a ledge looking over the Grand Canyon, we have found that every part of this country has a beauty all of its own.  We hope you treasure your backyard views and we hope in the near future we will be able to travel to your backyard and to share with you --- your backyard!  Until then, stay happy, stay healthy and stay tuned for more adventures from our trips to America's backyards!

 

On the Road Again!!!!

Before we left Colorado we had to see the grand boys again.  You have to admit they are really cute.  Our blog would not be very interesting if there was not a few pictures of these two guys.  Enjoy the views.

Karsten knows how to make Mom smile!! 

Kasey has that laugh down pat!!!

Grandma and Kasey -- It does not get any better than this!

We only had time for George to do his last two day chemo treatments, make a doctor's appointment, watch the boys for the weekend and to get ready to head out!  We think we spent 10 days back in Colorado before we started down the road again.  Our plans changed just a little bit.  We wanted to drive down to Albuquerque to see our friends, Mike and Rita before heading west to the Grand Canyon.  We decided to stay in Albuquerque until the end of the month.  Besides visiting with Mike and Rita we also fixed the CB in the motor home.  It has been giving George fits for over a month.  He has tried everything to fix it but after we arrived in Albuquerque he gave up and took the motor home into a CB shop.  He found out he was doing everything right but the new antenna he bought was defective and our CB was only putting out about 1 KW of power.  After installing a new antenna and upgrading our CB to include the 10 weather channels we are in business again.  Oh yea, George can now do what he does best when driving down the road --- talk!

Mike decided we needed to see the burn area around northern New Mexico that made national news so he enlisted Rita to drive us on a 100 mile circle to Los Almos national lab and back.  What a shame to see thousands of acres of burnt trees and shrubs.  Knowing that it will all come back better than ever does not help when you view the devastation.  Sorry we forgot the camera on the trip.

Today we relaxed and decided to go bowling.  Can you believe Bob , Donna, Pat and George all  bowled three games and it cost us a grand total of $3.00.  We all took lessons from Pat, who won all three games;  yeah we know,  what else is new!    We will be leaving Albuquerque August 1st for the Grand Canyon.  After the Grand Canyon we will visit the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Monument and drive up to see our friend Doug at Blue Mesa (April will be in Baltimore getting her grandma fix -see it is not just us that need grandbaby fixes).After a few days relaxing with Doug we will drive back to Denver for that all important Pet Scan!

YOU MAY SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH - GEORGE IS ON HIS HIGH HORSE!

It has become more apparent that our Congress and our President do not care about the people of these United States.  I don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat; Conservative or Liberal, Tea Party or Independent; the Congress and our President will only do what they want and their only objective is getting re elected and staying employed without really having to work.  I vote for voting them all out....everyone up for re election is not worth your vote, please join me in casting your vote for whoever runs against these incumbents.  It is really too bad that those senators and representatives elected in the last election are not forced out .... Remember this next year... do not buy into the 100's of  millions of dollars of political advertising, the half truths, the promises, the hypes...remember what is happening now and the real truth is they only do what is best for them --- not you!!!!  OK, I am off my soap box but it really is a sad state of affairs when we no longer have leaders only politicians!!!!!

The highlight of our day was when Kris and Amy skyped us with the "boys".  Can't believe Karsten got another haircut!!  But you can't get any cuter than they already are - we really appreciate their laughter and antics when they skype us -  it always lifts our spirits.

If you are interested in our mid level travel plans here is the "plan".  Please remember that plans are subject to change and our plans depend on the results of George's PET scan at the end of August.  If all goes well and he is in remission, which we fully believe will be the results, we are set to head east to Ohio in September for three/four weeks and drive back to Colorado for a day or two for normal doctor appointments.  October will find us in Las Vegas (visiting our money that we seemed to have left in several casinos).  We will also be visiting our friends,  Steve and Margie in Vegas. We will come back to Colorado for the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas).  After Christmas our current plans are to drive to Florida for the cold months of Jan thru March.  Again, those plans are not locked in concrete and it depends on what our doctors tell us at the end of August,  please keep George in your prayers for a few more weeks.  In addition to the pictures of our upcoming backyard travels, we will be announcing the results of George's Pet Scan (target date for the annoucement is NLT August 31st).  You may also see some very cute pictures of two very handsome boys, if you like that sort of thing and........... we do!

Take extra good care of yourselves and if you get a chance in the next few weeks ----  tell your friends and family how much they mean to you - you may regret it in the future if you don't tell them now! 

Back in Colorado

We left Utah and the Salt Lake City area and took a couple of days to drive down to Denver.  Our last supper in Utah was at a very unique restaurant.  We ate in a covered wagon and the steaks were some of the best we have ever tasted.  It was recommended to us from Don, the deputy camp host at Hill AFB...he  told us that this is his favorite restaurant, we decided to trust him after he told us that he would eat a 32 ounce steak and all the trimmings and than finish his wife's steak.  He must have weighed in about 130 pounds and had a wonderful sense of humor.  He is the epitome of the people we meet "on the road"

Pat, George, Bob and Donna at the Schooner Steakhouse, Ogden, Utah

Our trip back to Colorado included a side trip to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, on the boarder of Wyoming and Utah.  What a beautiful area, the canyon, the river, the weather, everything was awesome!  What a great backyard to admire and enjoy!

Those are two speed boats on the Green River, 1500 feet down!

One of the many bends on the Green River

That's George with his Ohio State t-shirt on the safe side of the fence!

We see so many different mountain formations and all of them are breathtaking!  This in the Yampa Valley near Steamboat Springs, Colorado

We came back to Denver for what we hope is George's last two chemo treatments.  He will do his treatments on Tuesday and Wednesday and after that we will take off for Mesa Verde and to see our friends from south Florida and our favorite camp hosts at Curicanti National Recreation Area Blue and our own personal astronomer.  We have been so fortunate to meet some of the best people in America on our travels.  It is friends like you and our all of new friends that allow us to enjoy our travels and make our lives so much richer...thank you all!

Take care and enjoy life!!   

Still in Salt Lake and still having fun!

Foreground is the Mormon Tabernacle, the temple is behind the trees!

We are still in Salt Lake and are enjoying the great weather and the sights and sounds of Salt Lake City.  We are getting many answers to our family history questions and are happy to report that the Cannode family tree is verified back to 1696 in Hesse, Germany and the Lawrence family tree dates back to the 11th century to Sir Robert Lawrence of Ashton Hall England.  We have also managed to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse, visit Temple Square and work on our motor home.

Yes, not all things are perfect in our world (it just seems that way; who wants to hear a grown man cry).  We arrived in Salt Lake City with our generator not working 100%.  If we disconnected the fuel line from the motor home's gas tank it worked great but that is not how it is designed.  It seems when we had the fuel pump fixed in Arizona they pinched the gas line resulting in no fuel to the generator.  Minor problem but $250 later it is fixed.  Also our CB did not work and we like to talk to our travel companions as we navigate down the road.  George worked for two days and finally gave up and bought a new antenna and coaxial cables to fix the problems.  He mounted the CB antenna on the back of the motor home which meant he had to string the cable 36 feet under the chassis to the cab and connect it to the CB.  George also managed to wash and wax the motor home and the car -- both needed the elbow grease!  But the good news is that the weather is great (a little rain during the night but beautiful all day), the mountains are green, the people are very friendly.

Tomorrow we will get up early and if "Arthur" does not show up on Pat's hands we will finally get our golf rounds in before breakfast.  She has been struggling with the arthritis in her hands but a fellow RVer told us about a cream that helps relieve the pain -- it seems to work a little so we are hopefully to get a round in tomorrow.

Plans for the future!  We are leaving Salt Lake City on Friday morning and driving to Flaming Gorge on the Wyoming and Colorado boarder.  From Flaming Gorge we will take the back way into Denver thru the mountains via Steamboat Springs and Winter Park!  By the way, our Colorado mountains still have a lot of snow so maybe we will catch a few pictures to post on our next blog entry.  We will be back in Colorado on Sunday, July17th and will stay until the end of the month (doctor's appointments).  The plans for August is to drive down to Mesa Verde to see the cliff dwellings, maybe a side trip over to the Grand Canyon (we are not sure if we will have time) and drive up to Blue Mesa to see our friends, Doug and April for a few days before heading back for the all important Pet Scan and a few more doctor's appointments at the end of August.  After that it all depends on the outcome of the Pet Scan (we think everything should be fine).  If all goes according to plan we will head east at a leisurely pace and end up in Indiana and Ohio in mid September for a visit with friends and family!  That is the plan but as we all know plans are just that plans and subject to change (being flexible is our strong suit).

As a side note, we have recently been reading two of our friend's travel blogs and they are amazing.  Tom and Maryann are traveling across Canada on her retirement trip and they are having the adventures of a life time.  They left Arizona on June 6 and will not return to Tucson until sometime in October.   Sue and George Summerfield are on their 42 foot trawler, "Next Adventure" and seem to love the idea of finding out what adventures awaits them just around the bend.  Good for both of these wonderful couples.  We can't wait for their next blog entries. 

As always we will wrap this entry up with a plea for all of you to get out and enjoy this wonderful country.  Adventures await all of us so take the plunge, if only for a day! 

We are in Salt Lake City!

Where should we begin, we were headed to Yellowstone NP and was within 18 miles, when our traveling partners called us just outside of Cody, Wy and said that they would be stopping at the hospital before going to the campground just outside of Yellowstone.  Long story short, the next morning we were headed, not to Yellowstone but back to Denver to see a cardiologist for Donna.  We were worried but it turned out OK and the cardiologist hinted that the doctors in Cody kinda of overreacted to Donna's pain and symptoms (which is better than under reacting).  But we did see some beautiful scenery on the way back to Denver. 

A canyon we drove through in Wyoming on the way back to Denver

Another bend in the road -  A beautiful backyard scene for our memories

Since we were a little early for George's chemo we got to watch the grand boys for a few days and could not have been happier.  They are growing like weeds and every day is a new adventure for us.  Most of you grand parents and great grand parents already know how much pleasure we get watching these guys just being themselves.  You parents are probably working too hard to really appreciate the changes your sons and daughters go through everyday. 

Kasey has an oven but he is a boy so out went all the oven stuff and he made himself a cave!

Karsten is crawling and really likes the slide!

Kasey has his "man cave"

 

The boys seem to like to play the piano - wonder if Mom really appreciates how good they are on her piano!!!

One of grandpa's favorite things to do with the boys is to pull them in their "train" .  Kasey says, "Toot Toot!  and Karsten just yells to grandpa.

George had his chemo (all went well) and we all decided to drive over to Salt Lake City to do some family history and sightseeing.  We were really surprised how beautiful the Salt Lake City area is since when we travel through Utah it has been in the south - translate that to desert and canyons!  We arrived at Hill AFB and used that as our base while we explored the Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City and the surrounding mountains.  Our first day, we traveled to Antelope Island, the largest of 8 islands in the Great Salt Lake.  Donna and Pat wanted to wade out in the Lake until they discovered the entire shoreline is covered with brine shrimp somethings (very very small creatures that turn the sand black) they are food for the brine shrimp but there are billions of them and you have to walk over them to get into the lake --- needless to say, no one went into the salty water.  The next day we went to Salt Lake City to do the family history.  We really found a lot of good information.  Note to travelers: in Salt Lake City---two hour parking means two hour parking and it will costs you $15 dollars if you are even 15 minutes past the two hour time frame. (The voice of experience!)

This is the view from our motor home at Hill AFB just north of Salt Lake City

We found this old time travel trailer on Antelope Island.  It is probably a rancher's field home but we called it an early RV!

Pat and George with a background of the six-spired granite Salt Lake Temple

Same picture but with the temple and one of its fountains in the foreground.  Temple Square in Salt Lake City is one of the most beautiful city squares in the world.

We hope this catches you up on our travels. We are still in Salt Lake City area and "hope" to give you another update from here before we leave.   We know that we have been a little remiss with the blog but living and traveling in this beautiful country with it's many backyards makes it hard to sit down and write about all the wonderful people we have met and the beautiful sights we have enjoyed.  We really are lucky to be able to take our time and enjoy this wonderful land.  We hope that soon we will be traveling a little further away from our beloved Colorado.  If all goes according to schedule with George's last two day treatment in July and his post treatment checkup/ PET scan in late August.  We pray that he is in remission, we will be happy campers and our travel plans will be expanded.  Until we get that news we will take our short trips and see the backyards of the west. 

To all of our friends and family, get out and enjoy life!  Summer 2011 is here, it won't last, and it won't come back!  Take extra good care of yourselves - know that we send our love your way.  Don't be surprised to see our old motor home coming to your town - we plan on traveling to all corners of this great land!!!!