The High Desert

This area, known as the High Desert, centres around the Mohave Desert and the cities that we visited, Palmdale and Lancaster, CA. Our purpose in travelling to this destination was to visit beautiful Soledad Canyon and to locate a dash and switch parts at the Rexhall plant for the motorhome. What beautiful country! Desert yes, but a plateau in the mountains. Many areas displayed signs of "dips", warning motorists of where mountain run-off water can accumulate and ensuing flash floods.
This area known as Antelope Valley is prolific with Joshua Trees, which belong to the Yucca family. Their trunk is fibrous with no rings, so age is difficult to determine. It flowers a whitish conical head in February to early March; new "trees" can develop from seeds pollinated by the yucca moth or grow from rhizomes of a nearby Joshua. We were travelling in very high winds and later experienced a "white-knuckled" drive along I-15 near San Bernardino as we were buffeted by crosswinds in the canyons. Not fun!

Tough Life but Someone HAS to Do It!

We are presently in sunny Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA (near Palm Springs), where magnificent and colourful bougainvillea and oleander line the streets and the temperatures are in the high 60's to 70's everyday. We will kick back, do some needed cleaning, see some sights, try local cuisine, shop and enjoy this beautiful desert area.



Caper, our much loved mini-schnauzer has developed canine diabetes. We are making weekly treks to Pets Vet in Hemet, CA to do a blood-sugar profile, he is on special prescriptive diet and he has insulin(human) shots twice daily. We are so thankful to be able to stay in one spot for a bit until he is straightened around and what better place than this! It is very beautiful; as I sit here writing this, I am watching the sun set red, on the San Bernardino Mountains.

Northern California

Yes, there is only one tree set close to each side of the road. Their girth is magnificent. The highway (101, known as the Pacific Coast Highway) wends its way through this beautiful grove of Redwoods. Even on a sunny day, travelling through these monstrocities can be quite dark; travellers are guided by the amber road markers set at the base of the roadside trees.


These friendly guys came to greet us at our campsite along with about twenty or so wild turkeys (I was not quite quick enough with the camera). They quacked their way across the pond and on to the grass close to me, probably looking for an easy handout; this campground was a quiet little spot in the middle of nowhere near Willets, CA, where check-in was self-registered. We normally would have spent more time in N CA but with delays in Vancouver waiting for parts, we needed to push on to warmer and drier climes.

Travels through the Napa Valley, the wineries and the vineyards present with beautiful colours of yellow, reds and gold, reminding us of the Fall in Northern Ontario. Acres and acres of rows and rows of grapes can be found in the lowlands and crest over the rolling hills, positioned just so, for the sun to ripen them. A very big business in Central California!

Washington and Oregon Travels

Our travels south took us through the beautiful city of Portland OR, a city of bridges and lots of traffic. We travelled through and out to the Pacific Coast while waiting for parts for the motorhome. Unfortunately, it rained and was very foggy this trip, something we have not encountered while travelling this beautiful coast.

Travels are much simpler with the toad "hitched" to the motorhome. We managed to follow one another to Vancouver WA with the aid of walkie-talkies and only once became separated while trying to find the lineup for the ferry in Lynnwood, WA. This picture was taken in the parking lot of our favourite cheese factory in Tillamook OR. We just had to have our ice-cream fix and make a purchase of our favourite cheeses. From here, we travelled north to Seaside, a beautiful resort town, but again lots of rain and fog.

Daniel at Five Months (Oct 28th)

Since we left Edmonton, Daniel is now sitting up (proud of it,too!), rolling over and is eating some solid foods...rice pablum, avocado, sweet potato and banana. We miss our frequent visits and Nadine and Michael report that we will not know him when we return at Christmas. He is strong and getting to be such a big boy; I would not be one bit surprised if he is standing and trying to walk when we see him next.

From This to This

In early September, we decided to make a big change. First, we bought a gently used SUV that we could tow four-down, meaning all four wheels on the road without making significant changes to the transmission. We bought a 2007 Saturn Vue. Next we went looking for a very gently used motorhome. We found one in Fairview AB....a 1994 Rexhall Aerbus. A couple of winters ago, we had visited and were impressed with the manufacturer of this small family run company of RV builders who specializes in design safety and inventive floorplans. When we purchased the motorhome, we asked the seller to winterize and find us some indoor storage as our intention was to travel in the fifth wheel for the winter. He obliged.

BUT, we decided to try to sell our F650 truck and leave our beloved Mobile Suite as a park model in Glowing Embers for the winter. Amazingly, the truck sold, leaving us scrambling to dewinterize the motorhome, return with it to Edmonton and then start to load it for the winter. We then had to winterize the fifth wheel. All of this was accomplished in about two weeks. Oh, and the motorhome needed some minor repairs which we found as we began to check its systems. Thankfully, Edmonton's beautiful Fall weather held and we found ourselves in travel mode by Oct 21. We headed to Vancouver and crossed into the USA at the end of October. California, here we come! Life is simple and very good!

Early Morning Sunrise/Evening Sunset

The Western sunset skies are glorious but the morning sunrises are spectacular. I don't ever remember seeing a rainbow with the morning sun, but this is what greeted us last Friday morning. WOW! The skies over Spruce Grove threatened rain, but the sun from the East cast light, producing this distinctly colourful rainbow. The colours remained until the sun was fully "up" and cast light on the golden leaves of the trees in our park giving the park its name "Glowing Embers".







This was the sunset at day's end. We have had some very cool nights with hard frost, so days with sunshine are very welcome. We know that there will not be too many more warm days this season, so we "drink" in days like this. In fact, a day of rain followed by a day of high winds scattered the leaves to and fro. The "glow" lasted sadly, only a couple of days! It was beautiful, though, while the colour lasted. The colours are very different to Muskoka; yellows are predominant; only mountain ash gives the oranges to reds. Still gorgeous...God's masterpiece!

Kendra Returns from Ghana

August 29th, Kendra safely returned from Ghana where she spent July and August working in a clinic, mostly for new moms and babies. She is pictured here with Esther, her "go-to" girl that would help her communicate in the language, Twi. Kendra landed in the capital city, Accra, spent a week or so in orientation, then travelled to Nsuta where her clinic was located. She has many stories to tell us. Although she is enrolled in Pharmacy at UBC, she acquired maternity experience, helping to deliver twins with no midwife present, weighing babies in the outreach programme, recording and giving innoculations, to name a few. Of course, she travelled, sometimes with the other volunteers and sometimes just she and Esther. Kendra lived in the top floor of a house and the little boys from the family down the street brought her meals to her each day. Kendra was known as "Obruni" which means "white person"; she was so greeted each morning as she walked to work and in her words, "possibly the best morning walk to work, ever"!
As most of you know, Kendra has very thick curly hair, but while there, she decided to have it braided. It took four women, six hours to braid her hair and three women, four hours to remove the braids, a month later. She had it braided twice as it was much easier to care for, as clean water to wash/rinse is not plentiful. In all, she reports a wonderful time and has a deeper appreciation for the amenities that we, as Canadians enjoy, especially fresh, clean water.

Back to Daniel

After a month of travel it was really great to get back to Spruce Grove to see our grandson, Daniel. Amazing changes in a six week period! Now, he is smiling and recognizes his mommy and daddy's voices and is beginning to reach out and grasp, not to mention smiling. He has had his first inoculation, which went well. Granddad can hardly wait to see him each and every time we go for groceries. He certainly has a captive audience when we visit. Bill and I had our first baby-sitting opportunity; what fun! Both of us on the floor playing; a young'un sure brings the "kid" back to life! Daniel loves his vibrating chair and play-mat. Everything is so colourful! Baby stuff has come a long way in 30 years!

Fort Macleod and Cardston

I have been very lax in keeping up with my blog! Time flies when we are having fun!
Further to our trip to southern Alberta, we visited the town of Fort Macleod and our friends, Doug and Jean. While there, we visited the North West Mounted Police Museum. If you look closely, you will see goats eating the grass from the sod roof. Not sure if there is enough sod to supply three goats for the summer; they are very sure-footed and enjoying their afternoon in the sun.

The Musical Ride, all teenaged girls, was a delightful highlight of this visit. The Ride was very precise with complex configurations which would have demanded hours and hours of practice. Very enjoyable!




Next day, we were off to Cardston to visit the Remington Carriage Museum. Can you believe that the carriage pictured here came in kit form and could be purchased from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue for $25.00! Imagine!
Mr Remington donated his life-long collection to the Alberta Government if they would build the museum and keep his collection together. An in-house repair facility restores many of the carriages, including the wheels. This is a dying art. Amazing!
Thanks, Doug and Jean, for a very enjoyable visit and stay in your driveway!

Spruce Meadows

What a fantastic jumping facility! Bill and I were fortunate to visit this facility for the RBC Cup! Such notable jumpers were Eric LaMaze and Ian Millar, the latter our age, who has been jumping horses for a very long time, even when Bill was an equestrian hopeful for the Olympics. We also viewed the Junior Barrage in which a young gal from Okotoks took a third. It was exciting to see the horsemanship...I felt myself "helping" the riders over the jumps! Such skill!
Spruce Meadows was established from meagre beginnings, a small horse farm, located on Calgary's southern city limits, in the foothills of the Rockies. The venue covers 360 acres, 200 of which are for pasture and the rest encompasses the tournament grounds. Owned by the Southern family, it was officially opened in 1975 with the first tournament in 1976. The family welcomes all families with open arms; it is free to all Seniors. A fantastic afternoon!

Drumheller

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller which opened September 25th, 1985, the day after Kendra was born, has greatly expanded since our last visit in 1987. Now a National Historic Site, the Museum holds over 125,000 fossil vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and geologic specimens. As an active scientific research facility, the collections grow by approximately 2,000 specimens annually. Scientists demonstrated examples of the tedious and tireless preparation of a speciman for identification and display. This is a very worthwhile museum, world renowned for its study of fossils and prehistoric times for young and old alike.

Southern Alberta

As part of the Chapter 44 Escapees Rally held in Millarville AB, we toured first The Saskatoon Farm, where they grow, cultivate and harvest Saskatoon berries, and then the Chinook Arch Meadery where honey is made into wine or mead. Seen here, are the stainlees tanks used to hold the mead or "honey wine" from which it is processed into tasty dinner wines. Mead is the oldest art of fermentation. The term “honeymoon” has been associated with drinking mead during the month long celebration following a wedding in pagan times. It is the bee’s tireless search for nectar from thousands of blossoms that creates the honey in each bottle of mead. 100% natural honey is diluted with pure water and spices or berry juice to add further dimension and complexity. Special yeast cultures are added to this medieval style of Mead. A fermentation and slow aging process in European oak barrels occurs for up to three years before bottling. Bill, Kendra and I thoroughly enjoyed this outing to learn about, view and sample the mead at Chinook, "from bee to bottle". Yes, we purchased a couple of bottles to take home.

Kendra had never experienced a rodeo, so off to High River we went. Many of the rodeo cowboys that compete here, also compete in the Calgary Stampede. Barrel racing, calf and steer roping, bull riding and the chuckwagon races thrill the crowds.

The "chucks" are an exciting climax to the rodeo. Four at a time start, make a figure eight then race the track with outriders in pursuit. I am hearing some of the same names in the finish at the Stampede, currently underway. The cowboys love the thrill, but this sure is a tough way to make a living, especially the bull riding!

Our" Wee" Grandson

Introducing the newest member of our family, three day old grandson, Daniel Reg Thomson Hendry, son of our daughter, Nadine and son-in-law, Michael who arrived May 28th at 12:33 am at Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton, AB weighing in at 9 1/2 pounds, 22 inches long. What a privilege to spoil; proud grandparents, we are! He is a delightful little guy, so alert and a very good baby. Needless to say, we have had lots of baby time as we have "hung out" for the last three weeks. Thank you, Nadine and Michael, for bringing so much joy into our lives!

Grandad loves to hold Daniel, talk to him and take him for walks. Like his own children, Daniel's feet will not touch the floor until he is 2! He is such a precious gift!

Edmonton Bound

Our trip to Edmonton is not a sight-seeing one, this time. We travelled the northern route, Highway 11, for the first since 1972. Many more fuel stations than the last time; it was great to see that the North is just as beautiful as I remember. The Palisades, near Nipigon are an interesting rock formation. Vertical striations in the rock are caused by the glacier action pushing up from below. Formed 1.2 billion years ago through water and ice erosion and columnar jointing, the Palisades of the Pijitawabik (pronounced pidg-i-ta-wa-bik) are one the oldest and most remarkable geological formations Northwestern Ontario has to offer! Several hiking trails take one back to many beautiful spring waterfalls and there is a glacier to which rock climbers from around the world, gravitate.


A familiar sight of the prairies is fast disappearing and being replaced by more modern, silo type grain elevators. It is quite a sight to see these in many small prairie towns; of course, they are not as busy now as they will be in August during harvest.



The old and the new!


















These giants work up the land, fertilize and plant, all in one pass. One farmer we met, said it takes a week to plant all his land, a far cry from our little Neufield tractor, plough, disc, seeder and harrows that we used on our farm in the 80's. It's seeding time on the Prairie!

Homeward Bound

It has been a few weeks since I have posted, but I do want to bring you up to date on our whereabouts at the end of our trip south and the month of May.

One of our very favourite places to visit is Shipshewana, IN. For us, it is like "coming home". We love to have dinner at one of our favourite Mennonite dining spots, The Blue Gate, visit Yoders and the Shipshe Outlet for an outfit or two and just travel the serene, pastoral countryside.


This is a common sight on the roads of this part of IN or hitched to the rails in the parking lots of all eating establishments and shopping areas. New roads in this area have a lane specifically for the horse and buggy to travel safely. We love to see the many carriages and horses enroute.



This is a welcome sight...the Canadian border, with the Canadian flag flying full-out! A short line, a few questions and we were safely back in Ontario, once more. A quick trip to Ottawa and then to Muskoka for Dr's appointments and we were off to the west!

Colorado...Our Big Climb

Vail, CO sits at 10 400 feet and the two mile Eisenhower Tunnel is 11 400 feet. Both of these climbs taxed the truck's capacity, towing our big rig. Sunny in Gypsum, snow in Vail. Skiiers and snowboarders were taking to the slopes for a day of Spring skiing on this bright, sunny day. Ski hills abound in this area.

As this mountain is so steep, signs like these to warn truckers to gear down are frequent along I-70 in this area. Many runaway lanes can be seen on the downward grade; thankfully, we did not need to use them. Of course, the truckers carry chains, as often, there are snowstorms and ice to deal with while travelling in this area of Colorado.

Scenic I-70; Salt Wash and the San Rafael Swell

The scenic route of I-70 through southern Utah was unbelievable. We don't usually travel Interstate highways and think of them as particularly scenic, but this travel sure was. It is recorded that the construction of this part of I-70 is an engineering marvel, with one engineer claiming this section as "one of the most significant highway construction feats of its time". The construction of I-70 through the Salt Wash to the San Rafael Swell, as this area is known, required boring through many solid rock canyons, cliffs, and mountains. The swell is noted for its sheer canyons and rock formations and is home to a large amount of exposed dinosaur remains. This includes the largest known collection of Jurassic era dinosaur remains at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry at the north end of the swell.

The highway ascends the western edge of the swell on a steady slope loosely following the north rim of Devil's Canyon, seen here. At the top of the grade is a view area with a view of Devil's Canyon and an overlook of the country west of the swell. It then crosses Eagle Canyon via a pair of steel arch bridges. The eastbound bridge is 489 feet long and the westbound bridge is 523 feet long.

The highway then ascends Ghost Rock Summit, seen here, the highest point for I-70 inside the swell. At the summit is another view area overlooking the Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael River. The summit is named for unusual rock formations nearby. The Ghost Rocks themselves are at 7,405 feet (2,257 m), although the freeway is slightly lower. I-70 meanders through a relatively flat portion of the swell until reaching Spotted Wolf Canyon, which provides the exit route to the swell. The eastern descent features one brake check area and two runaway truck ramps to aid trucks down.

About half way down is a view area of the canyon narrowing as it approaches the eastern escarpment of the swell, the San Rafael Reef, seen here. Just as the highway exits the swell it passes to the north of Goblin Valley State Park. The highway exits the swell near Green River, where we camped for the night. An incredible drive!

Zion National Park

Massive canyon walls ascend toward a brilliant blue sky. To experience Zion, Biblically named, meaning "Place of Refuge or Place of Peace", we walked among the towering cliffs, and in the small narrow canyon at the Temple of Sinawava. These unique sandstone cliffs range in colour from cream, to pink, to red. They could be described as sand castles crowning desert canyons. To protect this beautiful canyon, a free shuttle service in the nearby townsite of Sprucedale transports passengers to the entry gate and then a free shuttle within Zion transports to the different trailheads. Bicycles are also allowed. Vehicles are allowed to travel to the Zion Mount Carmel Highway, but there is a tunnel on that highway, through which for a fee, long, wide, high loads are escorted.
This impressive monolith, The Great White Throne, rises 6744 feet above the canyon floor and was so named in 1916 by a Methodist minister, Frederick Vining Fisher who along with his friend, Claud Hirschi, son of the Bishop of nearby Rockville, named many of the mountain beauties. Below is the Court of the Patriarchs; from left to right, Biblically named from the Old Testament; Peak Abraham, Peak Isaac and Peak Jacob, the white behind the red Mount Moroni, named from the Book of Mormon.

Mormon farmers settled in the area after the Anasazi and Paiute Indians disappeared. The Virgin R., which many archaeologists believe was responsible for carving out this canyon, provided irrigation for tobacco, corn and other grains as well as grazing land for sheep and cattle. Mormons farmed the area until Zion was named a National Monument in 1909.

Although she is keeping a watchful eye, this cutie just kept eating, 5 feet away, unperturbed by gawking photographers and rambunctious children. Mule deer are very numerous in the park. Plant life grows abundantly on the valley floor, naturally fed by the numerous waterfalls, weeping rock walls and springs, now running with the spring melt. Sunny skies and warm Spring temperatures made for a perfect two-day "Place of Refuge"..

Page AZ and Antelope Canyon

Wherever you look in this area, you will see beautiful sandstone rock formations that have been formed by rain and buffed by the wind. This is Lake Powell, formed when the Colorado River was harnessed by the Glen Canyon Dam. It took 17 years for Lake Powell to completely fill; the hydro-electric power produced here provides electricity to Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado; it is said there is enough hydroelectric power for these states for the next 300-500 years. Of course, marine activities are very popular; houseboating, fishing, sailing, cruising and boat tours are very active in season.

Undoubtedly, a highlight here was our trip to Antelope Canyon. The only way to see this unbelievable spectacle is via the Overland Antelope Tour Co, a fleet of pickups with a caged seating area which drive through a 3 mile sand wash to the mouth. Once there, we walked through the narrow canyon. Martin, our guide was very helpful in giving tips to excellent photos. Light and shadow on the canyon walls changes the texture and colour; ribbons and waves of sandstone add to its beauty. This is Navajo land so a certain percentage of the cost goes to the reservation for the privilege of touring.

Our tour was in the afternoon and the colours in the canyon were more reds and purples with some yellow and orange, near the source of light. Martin mentioned that morning light is more reds and oranges with yellow. I noticed that in the hour, the same area looked completely different coming out of the canyon than when walking in. There was a streaming sand storm while in the canyon, which gives a completely different focus; of course, the lens needed protecting and a shower was needed to clean out the fine red icing-sugar type sand from my hair.


To see more, copy and paste:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/brenda.southwood/AntelopeCanyon#