Starting our Western Swing with Friends

We have left Colorado and started our swing through New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington, Idaho, Wyoming before coming back to Colorado.  Our plans include visiting friends and seeing this country's beautiful backyards in our western states.  The first part of our adventure will be visiting with friends we have known for a very long time.  We started our journey on May 1st driving to one of our favorite cities, Albuquerque, home of the world's most photographed event, the Annual Balloon festival and our friends Mike and Rita Kavanaugh.  As with so many of our friends, Mike and Rita welcome us as part of their family.  We have known them since 1986 and surprisingly we are still very close.  Our next stop, Tucson, usually a late fall destination, to visit with Tom and Maryann Graue.  We all met in Germany where Kris was born back in 1978.  If you follow our blog, you might remember that we mentioned that it was Maryann (now a retired nurse)  who was responsible for sending George to the doctor for his sleep apnea which was the catalyst for discovering his throat cancer back in 2003.  We treasure all of our friends and enjoy every minute we get to spend with each and everyone of them.   We will be leaving Tucson on May 16th and drive to the San Diego area to see several friends including a young lady who was stationed with Pat in Turkey in the early '70s, a fellow firefighter from our time in Germany who also vacationed with us on the ski slopes of Austria in the mid '80s , and we hope to get together with George's classmate from high school who is RV camping near San Diego.  After San Diego we will venture into the Mojave Desert to visit two other long time firefighter friends also from Germany in the 70s and 80s.  We plan on posting our blog as we progress up California, Oregon and Washington's coastlines and the side trips into some of the natural wonders of this beautiful land.

 

 

Mike and Rita with Pat in Old Town Albuquerque

Rita always cooks a great breakfast and always smiles

Mike is not saluting he thinks he is sweating while he watches Rita do all the work...Ok Mike did make the coffee!

Outside of the old church in old town Albuquerque with Mike. Rita and Pat

This park is just outside of old town Albuquerque and commemorates the cattle drives of 

 early New Mexico 

Not a bad landing spot for our Tucson visit, the desert flowers are still in bloom.  The weather has been great for our visit with temps in the low 80s (the average is in the 90s for this time of year).  Pat is taking advantage of the sunshine to enhance her tan.

Seems Tom likes to cook breakfast so we let him cook breakfast twice for us.  Are we just moochers?

One of the best things about visiting Tucson, we get to see Tom and Maryann's miracle baby, Emme.  She was a preemie and at two years old still weighs less than 20 pounds.  As you can see she is already a Buckeye fan even though her granddad is an Arizona Wildcat season ticket holder.

 

Oh, Thanks Maryann!!!!! 

 I am sure you can think of a few captions for this photo but Tom and I really were fixing his door sweep. 

This might be a fitting picture to say "The End"

 

Our newest trip has just started and we will be on the road for a least two and half months visiting the backyards of the west coast but we already know that if the rest of our trip is like the first couple of weeks.....we are going to have some fun!  Although we will miss our Holly, Kasey, Karsten and their parents; we also know that we are a phone call, Skype, or Facetime away from talking and/or seeing them.  We hope all of our friends and family have a wonderful and safe summer.  If you live on the west coast be very careful we might be pointing our motorhome in your direction just to stop in and say "hello"! 

Leaving Colorado and Headed to the West Coast!

We have been in Colorado since March and now as May approaches we will leave our family and friends here and start our trip to the West Coast!  Words can not express how much we have enjoyed our family, it is so special as grandparents to see Holly grow and develop her own personality, seeing the Super Ks expand their world and grow into outstanding young boys.  We are so proud of all of them and their parents, who it appears have a pretty good handle on this parenting thing.  Of course we try to add our grandparent's worldly knowledge to help the parents but they must be hard of hearing because they think they know more about raising kids and follow their own mind and heart.  Go figure, they think they are the bosses!

After we arrived in Colorado, we settled into Chatfield State Park where we volunteered to get the park ready for the upcoming camping season.  George did his treatments in March and all is Ok for another six months.  We celebrated both Kris' 37th birthday and George's birthday with family.  We  

 were able to babysit Holly a couple of times and she is no longer a preemie and has grown into a beautiful baby girl with eyes that melt your heart.  The Super Ks are all boys, rough and tumble, sweet and cuddly, inquisitive, and into everything at once.  It seems they followed in their parents' footsteps because they have so many activities that they have not slowed down since we arrived back in Colorado.  The old saying ...."they stuff 10#s of flour in a 5# bag" describes the entire family now.

We have enjoyed our 2 months here from having the Super Ks overnight to cuddling with Holly, but we also met new friends at the State Park.  We will be coming back to Chatfield in late July or early August to volunteer with the new camp hosts and our staff friends.

 

 

One of the many hot air balloons that lift off at the balloon airfield on the other side of the lake, this one landed just south of our motorhome in the campground...short flight!

 

 

 

Kasey and Karsten easting Grandpa's molten cake on his birthday!  They think that is funny!

Holly was watching the kites at the kite feast!  I don't think she really liked the wind!

 

Mom I have a big plate and high chair, I am waiting for my real food!

Look grandma, we can climb trees and ride the branches like horses!

Of course Grandpa is her biggest fan...but she is so cute we are sure everyone is in her fanbase!

April and David, just in case you have not met Holly's mother and our newest daughter in law!

It is mutton busting time, the Super Ks rode the sheep like real cowboys at the Great Western complex during the All star Professional Bull Riding rodeo!

 

Kasey and Karsten are getting bigger and cuter!

Pat with our newest camp host, Mook!  No he is not a coyote, he is an American Indian! 

 

We could have posted a lot more pictures but we know you get tired of seeing pictures of our grandkids.  Of course we never get tired of taking and looking at their beautiful faces and remembering when we were with them and what we were doing with them.  If you are not a grandparent you might not appreciate the above statement but we guarantee once you have grandchildren you know what unconditional love is and the joy you get just watching them or seeing their pictures.   So parents....enjoy your children but remember to share them with your parents they are God's gift for us teaching you how to be responsible adults. 

Love you all and if you are on the west coast, be aware that we are headed you way and our GPS will find you!  Our plans are to drive through Albuquerque to Tucson.  After Tucson it is on to San Diego and up the coast to Seattle.  Side trips to friends are a must and the backyards of California, Oregon, and Washington state will be visited over the next three months.  We are looing forward to a great summer and hope you have one also!

Catch Up Again!

The last time we posted our blog we said we would do better...we didn't!   We were told today that we were woefully behind and we should post a blog soon since not everyone is on Facebook and they would like to see what we are up to as we travel around this great country.  But in our defense...Ok we don't have a defense! 
We last posted about three months ago and shortly thereafter our life was changed with the addition of a tiny  4# 14 oz baby girl who showed up a month early, David and April's beautiful baby wrapped herself around our hearts and we have not been the same since.   We have been  truly blessed with the Super Ks, Kasey and Karsten and we have shared our friends' grandsons and granddaughters over the years but now we have Holly Marie to spoil (and we will April and David)!  We could end this blog with just pictures of Holly but since we have been so lazy about posting, we will continue to catch you up on out trails and tribulation.  After we came back from Arizona for Holly's birth we spent Thanksgiving with Kris, Amy and the Super Ks at their house, we celebrated Kasey's 5th birthday and gathered as a family to celebrate Christmas before heading east and south in search of warm weather.  We saw spent a few weeks in Ohio with family and than headed south to visit with Pat's sister's family in Tennessee before driving to Florida.  We drove to the Florida panhandle to reunite with Pat Henry, a friend from Pat's early days in the Air Force, and with our friend from our days in Germany, Ann O Connor.  Did we mention that we were looking for warmer weather.... long story short...it was warmer in Colorado than in Florida.  We joined Dick and Karen, George's brother and sister in law and Pat's brother and sister in law, Chas and Sharon in central Florida.  The weather was not like New England but it was in the 60s and rained more than we wanted.  We also drove down to Key West with Chas and Sharon for a few days (still warmer in Colorado).  We were also fortunate to visit our friends, Doug and April Almond in Port Charlotte.  But the biggest news from our time in Florida was we (George) blew the engine in our Jeep and now we have a new Ford Edge to pull behind the motorhome.  In George's defense. the Jeep was an 04 with 275000 plus miles so it might have been time.  On to the pictures... we know that is what you all really want to see!

 

Presenting our granddaughter... the very perfect ....Holly Marie Cannode

You think David is on Cloud 9?

April and Holly... two beautiful young ladies!

The crazy Cannode's...

featuring the upside down Super K's, the adults making weird faces and

 Holly just being beautiful!

Did we mention that the Buckeyes are National Champions?  Might have forgot to tell Adam and Tami (Alabama), Kendra (Auburn), and Ann O Connor (Florida State)... btw Adam did you say that tOSU would never beat Oregon?  OH...IO!!!!!

Our friend Ann O Connor with George wearing his CSU sweatshirt (didn't want to rub it in that FSU lost to Oregon) -- Go Rams!

Karen, Pat, Minnie, Dick and Steve sitting around the pool while their friends in Ohio are enjoying sub zero weather! 

Sharon, Chas and Pat (I told you to smile) at the Navy Gateway Hotel in Key West

Sunset at Key West -- they really do have beautiful sunsets!

Pat (George was sitting in the space between April and Pat), April and Doug at Pounce de Leon park in Port Charlotte

The Cousins

Visiting Pat's Aunt Marie and her two daughters, Lynn and Kay with Mildred (next to Pat)

Pat and Aunt Betty

Aunt Ruby chatting with Pat

Cousin Melanie with two of her grandsons

Charleston AFB ...our new ride is in front of the motorhome

 

We know we skipped some of our adventures and did not include the hundred of pictures we had of family and friends but we finally got off our behinds and posted the highlights of our last three months.  We will be heading back to Colorado for George's maintenance treatments in March, to see Holly, Kasey, Karsten and of course Kris, Amy, David and April...hope the weather is warmer.  Just so our friends in upstate New York and in Ohio know we are not complaining about our weather since you have had a winter for the decades.  You should all wear T shirts that states... "I survived the winter of 2015", if you ever get to shovel out and get to a store.  In Colorado we will get our share of snow but will be warmed by being with family. 

Where has the Summer Gone?

 

 

We can't believe that our last post was way back in  July....Sorry to those who are following our backyard adventures, but on the other hand we will not bore you with everything we did over the summer and try to hit some of the highlights.  Our summer trip east had a few hiccups with a couple problems with the motorhome and of course our ever changing plans.  We left Ohio and drove back to Tennessee to play a little more golf and to drive down to Kendra's to help with some projects around her house. Mission accomplished we headed the motorhome west and back to Colorado for a month with the family.

We made it in time to celebrate both Amy's birthday and Karsten's 4th birthday.  We also were challenged by Amy and Kris to do the "ALS ice bucket challenge".   Spending time with family is always the best part of coming back to Colorado.  With David and April expecting a little baby girl in December, playing with the Super Ks, having everyone over to the motorhome for campfires, and taking care of my maintenance treatments made this trip back especially nice for us.  Although we only stayed a little over a month, we managed to fill the 5# sack with 10#s of memories.

We left the family in early October and drove down to Dallas for a reunion with three of Pat's friends from her early days in the military.  It has been since the early 70s since she has seen Casey, Kathleen, Dawn and Mrs Case and the moment they saw each other it was like last week.  Isn't that the way it is with friends?  Pat was stationed with the sisters on different overseas tours and has always stayed in touch with Mrs Case(Casey &Kathleen's mother) via letters and Christmas cards.  Catching up was both informative for George and was great for the ladies even though they remembered some things differently (might have something to do with drinking an clouded memories).  After Dallas, we drove down to San Antonio for a brief visit with Bonnie Byrd Karr, our friend from our days in Germany.  It is always great to see Bonnie and she ensures that you do not leave hungry.  Although George did assist her with a computer problem (was it a case of the blind leading the blind?).  After San Antonio, we headed west to Tucson and our visit with Tom and Maryann Graue and their family.  Of course we also wanted to see that special young lady, Emme, who is now walking and all the way up to 15 pounds and 1 1/2 years old and her cousins: Molly, Samantha, and Kirsten who are growing up to be three very energetic young ladies.  We will be here in Tucson until we drive north for the holidays.  Hopefully, Carrie Graue will have a few projects to keep George and Tom busy at her house (hint: if we visit, keep George busy).

 

 

 

Our lovely Colorado sunset

Happy 4th Birthday Karsten

The ALS ice bucket challenge with Kasey helping Grandma and Grandpa -- Thanks Kris and Amy for the opportunity to get ice poured over our heads!

A day on the water with Grandma and the Super Ks

Kathleen and Pat after 40 years

Mrs Case (we missed her 90th birthday) and Casey (look at the next picture for an earlier picture of Kathleen)

 

The Air Force softball team in Taiwan - The tallest girl is Kathleen and Pat is the young lady on her immediate left).  That is 40 years between the pictures -- not much changed????

 

Can anyone believe that George is helping Bonnie with her computer???

This is our campsite at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio

 

 

 

And for comparison this is our campsite at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson.  Both are pretty nice but way different!

Of course Pat has to play with Emme! 

 

Mom (Carrie) and Emme - sorry a little blurred - will do better next post!

Carrie, Samantha (peeking), Maryann with Emme, Kirsten (in the back), Molly and Pat at Tom and Maryann's traditional Sunday dinner for what seems to be anyone in Tucson.

 

This has nothing to do with our backyard adventures but it is football season and the Super Ks are Bronco fans and Mom took them to the tailgate for the Bronco vs San Diego game! Besides what would this blog be without a picture of Kasey and Karsten.

We started with a picture of sunset over Denver and end this post with a sunrise from our motorhome over Davis-Monthan AFB, pictures just do not do either picture justice!

 

We have started our fall backyard adventure.  Texas and Arizona with their warm sunny weather enables us to extend our summer, play a little golf and catch up with friends.  Yes, we were on the east coast with Tom and Maryann this summer, but like all of our friends - we always make new memories whenever we are fortunate enough to get together again! 

Tried to catch you up on the last part of our summer and early fall adventures and will try to post again before we leave Tucson and drive back for the holidays.  Our plans for the winter?  Remember, all plans are made in Jello but we hope to drive to the southeast after Christmas visiting family and friends in South Carolina and Florida.  If you are anywhere near our travel plans - watch out because we have no problem driving a little out of the way to see friends and family! 

Meeting Friends and Surviving Pennslyvania

We left New Jersey and the eastern seacoast to join friends in Pennsylvania.  Our first stop was in Cordus State Park in Hanford, near Gettysburg.  Doug and April Almond drove up from West Virginia to meet us in the beautiful wooded area of eastern Pennsylvania.  Beautiful weather and great friends made our four day stop feel like a totally new vacation.  We think we have enough pretzels to last until we get back to Colorado since we made two trips to their Hanford Pretzel factory  company store.  If you ever get to Hanford, a must stop should be the Amish outlets if for no other reason than to eat at their restaurant  -- the food was all hand made with fresh eggs, meat and bread, it was  delicious, and cheap.  We decided that we should try our hand at disc golf - it was fun but think we will stay with regular golf (no golf carts with disc golf), but now we can remove that from our bucket list.  The state park had many walking trails and we almost got lost trying to follow a map that we later found out was wrong - a special thanks goes out to the hikers we met in the deep woods  that steered us back towards our motorhome.    What a great time but it passed all too quickly and we headed to Karthaus to meet Tom and Maryann for the second time on our eastern swing.  Karthaus is near State College, home of Penn State.  As we were traveling down I-80 we heard a thunk in the motorhome but nothing happened so we kept going down the interstate.  Our campground was on top of very large hill with a 7 % grade on a very narrow road --- BAM!  Our motorhome started to make extremely loud noise and immediately overheated.  We were broke down on a very narrow road with gravel trucks barreling up and down the hill.  Long story, short--- we picked up something on I-80 (remember the thunk) and it took out our clutch fan and the surrounding shroud, the water pump and we were faced with getting the motorhome repaired before the July 4th holiday.  Thank goodness Tom and Maryann were about 35 miles away staying with her mom in Karthaus.  We had to order parts from Alabama (overnight shipping ($$$$) to beat the July 4th closing of repair shops) and we stayed at Maryann's mom's home while repairs would be made to our motorhome.  The good news was Maryann's mom is a wonderful young lady who invited us to share her home, Tom and Maryann were perfect hosts and drove us around the beautiful countryside and we had a wonderful time exploring the "strippins" and the "camps" in central Pennsylvania.  The repairs were completed about 5:00 on July 3rd and we were on our way early on July 4th.  Since we were close to Ohio at that point we changed our plans and drove to Ohio to have Pat's brother check out our motorhome before we went too much further.  All was OK and we got to see a great July 4th celebration at Chas and Sharon's house put on by their daughter and son in law, Christian and  Kelsey.  The fireworks show they put on was better than some county fair's shows lasting over 45 minutes.  We left their house and drove up to the Kenton area to see George's family, play a few rounds of golf with his brothers, and hook up with friends in the Kenton area.

 

 

 

Our home at Cordus State Park, PA

 

Our friends from West By God Virginia, Doug and April Almond

Pat throwing a disc during our disc golf outing

A beautiful start to a walk in the woods, yes we got lost but it is now another great memory

 

Ouch...you never want to see your motorhome hooked up to a tow truck but it is just another  story to tell to our friends --- no one injured so this was just another adventure on our road to see the backyards of America

Pat with Tom and Maryann - We wanted to visit with them not necessarily stay in their mom's house with them, but they made us feel like family - it was great that they were there for us and we hope we were not too much of an inconvenience..

O-H-I-O

Tom is an Arizona Wildcat fan but who can resist?  BTW isn't that a big truck?

 

We saw a lot of these big fellows while touring the "strippins" around Karthaus

Eat your heart out Kris!

. 

That little lady between Pat and George is Maryann's young mother who invited us to stay with her while the motorhome was in repair.

Another great picture of Tom and Maryann Graue -- They are truly like our family and it's never a dull moment with these two -- thanks for putting up with us in three different places this summer!

Only one of several hundred shots, each better than the previous.  You can not image 45 minutes of non stop fireworks in Chas and Sharon's backyard!

 

 

 

Pat barely got in the picture with George's family - l to r... sister Patsy and  Bob, Connie - Max's wife, Paula and brother Chuck, Karen and brother Dick relaxing before the big meal.  A night out for the Cannode family!

 

Aunt Martha and Pat...She is sharp as a tack and looks younger than her 96 years.

 

George, Bobbi Wiley, and Pat  

 Bobbi has been a friend for over 55 years .   Who else but a friend could put up with George for that long, except maybe Pat!!!!

 

Did we mention that David and April are going to have a baby girl?  Yippee!!! 

 

We are a little late posting this latest blog but with the change of plans, not having any cell phone or Internet service for about a month and just visiting and having fun have all taken a front seat to sitting down and recording our adventures.  Hope you all are having a wonderful summer.  We also hope you don't have any major disasters happening to you this year.  We have taken care of that  for you -- don't thank us, we are glad to handle that for you!!!