YES, I'M THAT DUMB

This morning the power went out about 6:45 am. I grabbed my cell phone to call Idaho Power, I have the outage number programed in. The reason I always call, is one time the whole neighbor hood was without power, and no one called to report it, well at least not for a couple of hours. Anyway today I knew my cell phone was about to die, so I plugged it into the charger, while I called the power company to find out why we were without power. It took me a minute to figure out why it wouldn't charge. Duh....
A crop duster hit power lines south of here, he was lucky, he was pulled out of the burning plane.

Mammoth Lakes CA

Gary's Daughter Brenda and her Kids Christopher and Michelle. Brenda's husband was climbing Europe's highest peak Mt Elbrus, 18,481 ft. I wanted to post the link to Adventure Consultant's web site, they had day by day reports of the climb. But I couldn't get the site to come up. The Computer hates me today.

Gary's daughter Bonnie with her husband Lance and their oldest daugher Hayley

Bonnie with daughters Hayley and Caroline

Gary with Bonnie and Lance's sons Matthew, Jonathan and Brett. I tried to do a slide show of all our pictures by can't get it figured out. Maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow.

2nd Day of Our Trip

this is a picture of Walker Lake, a large lake near Hawthourne NV. It's a great place to be......if you like spiders. The first time we stopped at Walker Lake, I mean the first time Gary wanted to stay overnight there with me---( he has stayed there once when he was traveling alone, crazy man) I walked down to the visitor station to fill out the paper work and to pay for the night. But As I was walking I noticed a spider, then another and another I couldn't get back to the trailer fast enough. The shelter over the picnic table was covered with spiders and webs. We left right away. I had dreams about spiders for two days. So now everytime we pass I check out the spiders. When you can see spiders hanging on every sign and on the guard rails and you are driving 60 miles an hour the spiders have to be huge.

if you click on the link and then on the little camera you can see a news cast about the spiders

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?s=7128133

Our Trip

As you can see our trip to California got off to a rocky start. We left home Thursday afternoon (July 17th), we were planning on staying in Winnemucca Thursday night but we never made it. About 20 miles out of McDermitt NV, we started to loose power. 1st the radio/CD player went out, We were listening to a book on tape. It's the only way to travel, I mean 10 hours of nothing but sage brush. Anyway, the next to go was the lights on the dash board, and then the power to the windows. Gary pulled into the Casino parking lot in McDermitt, he was smart enough to pull to the very back, out of the way. As soon as he turned off the engine, we were stuck. The alternator was gone. We knew we weren't going to get anything fixed that night since it was after five, so we just had dinner at the casino and went to bed. The next morning We called the Ford dealer in Winnemucca and the cranky parts man said that he doubted he could find an alternator anywhere. So we called my dad and had him look for one in the Boise Valley. We had a couple of people tell us that we should call the NAPA parts store 30 miles away in Orvada. The person there said that they could get the part but not till after 5, so we called the Ford dealer again, this time we got the nice parts man. He checked the inventory, they had what we needed. So we called dad and told him he didn't need to find the part and drive 2 hours to bring it to us. The next thing was to call our emergancy road service to get a tow truck. The tow truck finally came around 1:30 and took Gary and the Truck to Winnimucca, I stayed with the trailer, in the hot, dusty parking lot. Gary came back to get me around 6 pm and then he hooked up and drove back to the RV Park in Winnemucca. Long day

The view out of the Window above the sink.

The Casino parking lot.

IT'S A GIRL

Susan found out on Wednesday that they are having a girl. That will make it a even dozen.

Six girls and six boys. I mean----Gary and I will have 12 grandkids.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE

July 22nd was my son-in-law's birthday. Hopefully we will be able to celebrate this weekend.

California, Here we come.

Gary and I leave tomorrow afternoon. We are headed for Mammoth Lakes CA. to meet up with Gary's daughters and their families. This picture was taken in 2006. Grandpa and Brett. We loved being out on the boat. Hope we get to rent one again this year.

Gary's Trip

Every year Gary and his long time friend Marshall try to take a overnight backpack trip. This year they took the ATV's out with the backpack gear and spent the night at the camp grounds near the Graham airstrip.

HADLEY

Last night after work, I picked Hadley put and brought her to our house to play for a couple of hours. Boy, did we play. Here is a list of all the things we did.

We played with foam balls, you should see her juggle :)
We played with the toy dishes, and made something out of water and candy sprinkles.
We had dinner.
We played with bubbles.
We played with my Nintendo DS---"CARS" and "COOKING MAMA"
We played with some stamps and ink and paper.
We played baseball with grandpa.
She rode her bike.
She swung on a low branch, like the monkeys at the zoo.
We took a ride on the ATV.
We checked out the 5th Wheel trailer.

I guess that's all, but it isn't bad for 2 and 1/2 hours.

Oh, to have the energy of an almost 3 year old.

OUR 4TH OF JULY

This is why Gary and I never made it to the Graham

airstrip last year. We tried three times, the first time the road was closed due to snow. The second time we were able to drive in about 20 miles before a huge snow drift made us turn around, the third time the road was closed due to fire. Susan and Mark on top of Jackson Peak, at the Lookout station--see the sky, the smoke - it's from fires----California fires--

The guys decided that they were not going to let a little snow drift keep them from making it to their destination.

It has been a great year for wildflowers, I wish I could take better pictures, the mountain sides are just covered with flowers.

Susan and Mark--the road was so rough, Mark tried his hardest to make the ride as comfortable for Susan as he could. The Dr. said it was okay for her to ride a ATV as long as it wasn't teeth jarring. This ride was close. This is about where Susan decided she had, had enough. Gary and I went a little further.

But not much further. We came to the end of the road. Gary forgot his chain saw.

We dropped Susan and Mark off at their house around 8:30, they were planning on riding their bikes to the park to watch fire works....not sure if it happen, Susan was pretty tired. Gary and I decided to go to the fireworks in Caldwell, we didn't have time to go home and clean up, or drop the ATV's off, so we just took the ATV's with us, and sat on them, while we watched the fireworks. I think Caldwell has a great fireworks display.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

We are going 4 wheeling with Mark and Susan. I will post pictures tomorrow.

SWIMMING LESSONS

Nicole and Hadley took a ride down our lane--trying out the new ATV

After work today/Wed. I went to the "Y" to watch Hadley's swimming lesson. She sure loves the water. After class they came over for dinner, Gary fixed spaghetti- Hadley loves spaghetti too!