"Touchdown"

Marlene and I have not been good at updating our travels in the last few days, but after 4500 miles and 3 weeks of (mostly) living in hotels, we have landed in Oceanside, California for a few months. Oceanside is the ultimate beachfront city. It has a huge pier right off the center of downtown. The pier has a "Ruby's" restaurant built on the end of the pier, so you can eat great American diner food, with a fantastic view of the city and the ocean. This is the sunset view tonight from the deck of the condo we rented. The temperature was in the low 80's today. We found a great furnished condo in a beachfront complex, right next the to harbor, so I have already been checking out the trawlers. We are right below downtown, so the beach, the downtown, and the harbor restaurants are all in walking distance. We were really busy in the last week, visiting Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Park, and San Diego. We got a chance to see Brian, Jackie, Evan, and Elise. It was great to hold our grandchildren and see how much they have grown and developed skills. Oceanside is just 35 miles north of San Diego, so we hope to see a lot of Brian's family in the next few months.

Sunny in San Jose

Marlene and I spent the weekend with Sean, Gloria, Jacob, and Emily at their home in San Jose. It was nice to have a break from hotels and restaurant food. Saturday, Emily participated in a cheer leading class and in the afternoon we all went to a high school football game to see Emily and her cousins Alex and Jane perform at the halftime show. Sean and Gloria prepared a Spanish dinner of tapas on Saturday evening. We also had the chance to spend the evening with Gloria's brother Tim and his family. Tim just moved down from Seattle. We had met him at Sean's wedding, but only briefly.

The weather has been sunny and in the high 70's. We are staying at Sean and Gloria's through Sunday, Monday, we plan to start towards San Diego, taking time to visit Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park on the trip down.

Fast Forward to Monterey, California

After a quick cold Sunday overnight in Lake Tahoe, we decided "enough" with cold weather. Descending from Lake Tahoe(in the 30's) we found the warmth of NAPA valley to be very welcoming. We spent Monday afternoon doing a circle of the wineries in NAPA, then headed towards San Jose. The temperatures were a balmy 80+. We spent Tuesday in San Jose, meeting Sean and Gloria for lunch in Los Gatos. We spent the evening with Sean, Jacob, and Emily. Wednesday, we drove down to Monterey and visited Fisherman's Wharf. We took a 3 hour whale watching tour. We didn't see any whales, but we did see a large pod of dolphins. The air temperature on the Ocean was in the low 60's , but it was great to be back on the water. Marlene was happy. Whale watching is one of her favorite activities.

Nevada is a wide state

Spent most of the day driving from Salt Lake City to South Lake Tahoe. It is a long 400 mile drive across Nevada making today's drive over 500 miles. The drive has its natural desert and mountain beauty, but not very many towns. We briefly drove through Reno (mini-Vegas) and decided we didn't want to stay there. Based on the cold temperatures for early October, Marlene immediately took it off our relocation consideration list. We decided to take a scenic drive to Virginia City, Nevada.

Virginia City is located high upon the side of a mountain. Looked like a tough ride for Hoss and little Joe to get there. It is a national historical site. Its claim to fame is being the best preserved western town in the nation. After departing, we skirted the state capital, Carson City, and headed on to South Lake Tahoe. The cold front has made its way here, so there is snow on the rooftops and on the ski slopes. We are planning to head on to San Jose tomorrow and hopefully warmer weather.

Flaming Gorge

October 4
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area
We had never heard of this area, but it was in our book of The top 150 scenic drives in America that Sean gave us a few years ago. This reservoir dams the Green River, which ultimately flows into the Colorado River. It is famous for the red color of the canyon walls which was formed by the river. This is dinosaur land. We saw many signs where archeological digs discovered dinosaurs. The canyon is also famous as a hide out for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as other famous outlaws. We woke up to gray skies and snow but amazingly when we stopped to walk out to the canyon overlook, we had some blue sky above us. Although this lake is in the middle of the desert, we saw lots of boats on the road. I think this must have been the weekend for most to pull their boats for winter storage. The first major cold wave and snow storm is moving in. We went on to Salt Lake City. Just before we got here we clocked 3000 miles on this adventure so far. The goal for tomorrow is to get to Reno, Nevada. I can't believe it is still over 500 miles away. The west is a big place.

But if you fed the wildlife, there would be some around to see!!

The Perfect Day in the Grand Tetons

October 3rd
Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole
We departed Yellowstone and traveled the 2 miles to Grand Teton National Park. What a change! What Yellowstone offers in wildlife and geothermal wonders, Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole deliver in beautiful mountain peaks reflecting in lakes and brilliant fall colors. The park is smaller and we spent most of the day doing the 60 mile loop checking out the magnificent views of snow capped mountain peaks and fall colors. We saw a few examples of wildlife, but not to the overwhelming degree we saw in Yellowstone. We then decided to change our plans and head 200 miles south to southern Wyoming to check out Flaming Gorge near Rock Springs. We are staying overnight in Rock Springs, Wyoming which is on I-80. This will put us in great shape to head west to Salt Lake City and on to California later this week.
PS. Another bit of "good karma"....we ran in to a couple who had been at the park for a couple days. They had endured snow and high winds the two days before. We had great timing with the weather.

Celebrating the 37 year anniversary of our first date in Yellowstone

October 2 is the 37th anniversary of our first date. Celebrating in Yellowstone was really special. We had to start the day early, since the fire in Yellowstone limited access to the East and North side of the park to 6-8am and 6-8pm. The road was an hour and a half away from our hotel so we had to leave about 6AM to catch the road open. The day was cold (18F) but it eventually warmed up to 40F. We saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with two beautiful waterfalls. We also went to many more geyser areas. We saw several buffalo on the road. One was coming at us in our lane. Needless to say, we went around him. We also saw wolves, elk, deer, and foxes. It was a great day.

October 2, 2009
Yellowstone National Park













Rock climbing in Yellowstone is a lot of fun.......Doh!........I think I'm stuck in this rock. .......STUPID ROCKS !!!!!!

Yellowstone National Park

October 1, 2009
Yellowstone National Park

1st snowfall of the season







"I could go east....I could go west....It was aaaalllll up to me to decide...... HOMER (lyrics by Bob Seger)