Farewell, Old Friend.

After sitting in the garage for two years without being used, it was time to say goodbye to the camper.   I knew it was time last fall, but figured that it would sell quicker if I waited until spring.  I must have been right, for within 6 hours of posting it on Craigslist, I had about 20 people who were interested. 

We were able to sell it to a young couple with a 2-year old who were just as happy to get it as I was sad to see it go.  It may have been a great garage shelf for the past 20 years, but we had some great memories. 

I had thought I had everything cleaned out when we popped it up to show the new couple, but they noticed a magnet attached to the side.  Then another and another.  As I collected the magnets, I remembered the good time we had, and the multitude of places the camper had been.  We camped in it from coast to coast, so it has seen it's share of use.   And who can forget 15 straight days across the Southwest as we were moving to Everett. 

Ahh, the good times. 

Farewell, old friend.  Hope your new family can make as many good memories as we did. 

Summer Vacation 2003 - Washington, Oregon, Northern California

As the kids were growing up, we made it a point to take summer vacations, and given the number of people, it was usually a road trip.  We frequently traveled long distances, so we had plenty of time in the car.  One popular activity was keeping a journal of our trips.  I found this while cleaning out some boxes late last year.  It contains our road trip to Oregon.

I apologize for the lack of resolution in some of the pictures, the scanner had difficulties with some colors.  And I made the images pretty big so that there's a chance you can read them. 

This was also the trip where one of my favorite pictures was taken. 

Teddy Roosevelt

I have long admired Theodore Roosevelt.  (I highly recommend Edmund Morris' trilogy The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and Colonel Roosevelt.)  So when I had a chance to visit Long Island on a business trip, I made it a point to visit his home on Sagamore Hill.

I visited on a Sunday in April 2012, and at the time, there were sequestered cutbacks so the house was closed.  Mildly disappointed, I wandered the grounds virtually alone.

As I walked around the house, I climbed on the porch to look in the windows.  I was enjoying the nice spring day and noticed the rocking chairs.  As I saw them rock, I could picture Teddy and Edith sitting on the porch in their old age watching the Roosevelt clan climbing down the hill to the bay.  It was almost as if their spirits were reaching out to wish me peace.

The feelings that I had that day reinforced my belief that the National Parks and Historic Sites are a treasure and that they can give us a bridge back to a time a hundred years ago.

To My Valentine - Sunset

Last year, Valentine's weekend synced up with President's Day so Gail had a couple of days off.  We decided to go someplace warm, and visit a few National Parks, so we flew into Albuquerque and spent a long weekend.

We arrived mid-afternoon and hadn't planned much for that day.  On the way to the hotel, we noticed an advertisement for the Sandia Peak tramway.  Having nothing else planned, we decided to spend Valentine's Eve watching the sunset from the top of the Sandia Mountains.

What we really didn't know is that at the top of the tramway is a ski area, which still had snow.  We only brought light jackets because we really didn't expect to see much snow this trip.  So, cold and shivering, we wandered around the top of the mountain until the sunset.  We had a much better weather than in Hawaii and got some really bad quality photos with our iPhones.

Warm or cold, I will go just about anywhere to be with my lovely bride.

To My Valentine - Sunrise

In 2003, I rescued the love of my life from raising the kids and escaped to Hawaii for a week.  I planned it so that we would be on Maui on Valentine's Day.

One of the "bucket list" items people talk about is sunrise over Haleakala, the dormant volcano on Maui.  We figured going on Valentine's Day would make it even more special.

Sunrise in February is about 7am, and the road to the top is about a 90 minute drive.  It's so popular now that they are taking reservations.  We woke up at about 4am to start the drive up the steep, windy road in the dark.  We were not alone, there were many others making the trek as well.  We were all hoping that we could get above the weather and see the sun above the clouds. 

By the time we got to the top, it was cold (over 10,000 feet from sea level), and raining.  We put on our rain gear and took a picture to the east at sunrise.  (Notice the little orange stripe through the raindrops on the lens.)  We also noticed a group of bicyclists strapping on rain gear and getting ready for the ride down the mountain.  (Apparently, that's a thing too!)

On the way down, we stopped and grabbed a bite for breakfast and headed back to the resort for a morning nap.

Among my favorite things in life are the days I get to spend with my lovely wife.  We have spent many Valentine's Days together.  Some with flowers and cards, others on trips, still others with the family.  Looking forward to the Heart-shaped Pizza for supper.

I Love You, Gail. 

Mount Rainier GeoTour

Mount Rainier from White River Valley
at Sunset

In a nice marketing move, the Visit Rainier organization leveraged the 100th anniversary of Mt. Rainier National Park by creating a series of 100 geocaches in and mostly around the park.  The caches were released in groups of 25 about every 6 months, and were placed so that you would have to travel around the mountain for each of the groups. 
We began this last year, and were a couple of short for Series 1 before the snows came.  Series 2 came in the fall of 2015, and we were busy and couldn't get to any.  Series 3 came right before we went camping over the weekend of July 4th, so we decided to get as many as we could. 

We obtained 42 of them the weekend of the 4th, I got another half-dozen a couple of weekends later, and last weekend, we got back to the Sunrise side of the park and polished off the last ones.  A little hiking, a little camping, a little sightseeing.  We went up to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort to see the Perseid meteor shower, but after an hour without a trace, we gave up.  It was still nice to see the stars outside of the city lights. 

Fruit so good I can remember eating it.

There are three times in my life that I remember where I have had fruit that was so good, I can remember exactly where I had it.  It was that good. 

Strawberries from Central Valley:  One summer during her college years, Corinne got a summer job for a company in Los Angeles.  We had an extra car at that point, so I told her she could take it down to LA for the summer and sell it afterwards.  Of course, we needed to make a road trip, so I decided to take the weekend and drive down there with her. 

On the way to Sequoia National Park, we were driving along a local road and came across a stand selling fresh strawberries.  We purchased a pint and had them when we got to the park.  The fruit was ripe, red throughout, juicy and melt in your mouth delicious.  Afterwards, we decided that we made a mistake in not buying more. 

Peaches in Georgia:  A few years later, we decided to get a condo in northern Georgia.  We were between my niece's wedding and when Valerie had to return to college, so we decided to vacation in the southeast. 

One day during our excursions, we found a peach orchard that was selling peaches.  We tasted one and decided to get a large bag to last for the week.  I can't remember how long they lasted, but they didn't last us the week.  Between 4 of us, I'm sure they were gone within a couple of days.  The fruit was ripe, juicy, sweet but not too sweet, and that perfect consistency that it melted in our mouths. 

Pineapple in Fiji:  This past winter, we used some money my mother gave us and took the whole family to Fiji for Christmas.  The trip was long, but everyone managed to make it from five cities on two continents. 

The first day we were there, Christmas Eve, Gail and Valerie went to a local market and got some produce.  Part of what they bought were some pineapple.   They were a bit smaller than we normally get in the US, so they bought some more.  Again, the pineapple was ripe, juicy, sweeter than we can get in the US, not as stringy, and perfect for snacking, daiquiris, and cooking.  We went back to get more, and I believe that had twenty pineapple before we left, and not a one was disappointing. 

America the Beautiful Pass

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Wallace Stegner, novelist, environmentalist and historian, once said "National parks are the best idea we ever had.  Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."  I agree.  

Every year, we manage to visit at least one National Park, and when we go, we make sure to get an America the Beautiful pass.  It allows access to all the parks and any national fee site.  We may not get full value from the pass, but the money goes to a good cause.  When I retire, I'd love to devote some of my time volunteering in the parks.  

When I hear of certain individuals who "take over" national lands and demand that it be "given back to the people", I am puzzled.  As a US citizen, I own 59 National Parks, 82 National Monuments, 19 National Reserves, 50 National Historic Parks and a huge number of other public areas.  If they aren't being run the way I like, I vote.  

Buy one today.  

Disclosure:  I am not compensated in any way for any sales from the National Parks.  

Camper

When we were in St. Louis, we frequently went camping with our friends from church, Dan and Donna.  Their daughter, Rachel, was about the same age as our oldest two and they all loved to have little sleepouts in their camper. 

A few years later, Dan called us up and asked us if we wanted to buy the camper.  We agreed, and we then began dragging the kids around the country in the camper.  It went with us to Yellowstone, Glacier, Utah, Oregon, California, and many places between.  The most notable was 15-days straight when we were moving from Iowa to Washington (via the Grand Canyon). 

Now it's primarily used once or maybe twice a year.  It makes a great shelf in the garage.  This year, I had 4 days off around the 4th of July holiday, so we went camping near Mount Rainier. Deanne was able to come, and Maria and Chris came up from Oregon to visit for a bit.  It's showing its age, and there are fewer parts than there used to be, but we still enjoy getting out in the "wild". 

Bob's T-Shirt Quilt

During the last round of t-shirt quilt making, Gail took a bunch of my old t-shirts and made me a quilt.  The quilt tells a bit of my story, from my favorite football teams to churches I've attended, to places I've lived and worked and other interests.

Each of these squares has a story or a memory that makes it special.  You can see National Parks on here, maps, ice cream, minor league baseball, old tuba shirts from college, NPR programs and mementos of trips I've taken.

The oldest shirt dated from 1975 (grey shirt on the left edge).  That's the year my sister went off to college at St. Olaf and bought me a handful of t-shirts for Christmas.  There's a map of Milwaukee from the 70's, an Immanuel Lutheran Chapel shirt from the 80's, Richmond Rooster's shirt from the 90's, Bethany Lutheran shirt from 2000, and a Yellowstone shirt from the 10's.

40 years of my life, keeping me warm.

Maps

Keeping Nat'l Geographic in business

When Google first came out with Google Maps, I think my productivity went down by an order of magnitude.  For some reason, I am fascinated by maps.   Road maps, Topo maps, Satellite views, Street maps, it's all the same.  I can get lost in tracing roads, "discovering" places that are close to other places I've been, or more recently, seeing what something looks like from space. 

While we were in Virginia last weekend for  my Nephew's wedding we stopped by Shenandoah National Park for a visit.  We came down Skyline drive from the north, but unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy.  The view from the road was a solid white cloud.

While we were there, I picked up one of my favorite souvenirs, a trail map of the park.  Never did get to use it, and will probably never use it for a trail, but its kind of like an obsession.  So, I brought it home and stored it in the box with the other maps I've bought but seldom used. 

Coins

NPS Quarters - 2010 through 2015

Some of the images I want to share are mementos that I have collected over the years.  Some of them I will be disposing of, but some of them are just things I'm collecting (for now).

One of the mementos that I have been collecting are proof sets of the National Park Service quarters.  I loved what the US Mint did with the State quarters, and one of my daughters has the proof sets of those quarters.  When the Park Service quarters came out, I decided that I would like to get them.

I'm not a coin collector, by nature, but I thought these were cool.

I also learned that it's really hard to take pictures of shiny things.

Welcome

A big part of this blog revolves around images.  As I find images, they bring to mind stories, and this is where I get to share the stories.

My first image is a picture of me relaxing in Zion National Park.  It's not a great photo, but it shows me doing what I love.

It was taken back in 2001.  In August.  In the heat.  I remember that we were planning on taking a hike, but it was 100+ degrees and when we got to the trailhead, it was on the other side of the Virgin river.

We never got  past the stream.  The kids were playing elsewhere in the stream, and I found a nice shady spot to watch them while cooling off my feet. 

I'm a National Parks Service junkie, so much so that I have created a spreadsheet with all the sites that are under the management of the National Park Service.  I've kept track of all the sites I've visited, along with the dates and if we got a Passport stamp at the park.

I know.  There are people I can talk to about that.