August 2, 2009 , arrived back in Toledo to check how Bob is going.  Pulled in to Twin Acres campground lot 19A, Woody and Linda are clearing the area in the front of the campground, I think it is the new land that was bought. 

August 3, 2009 Today Virena and I went to see Bob at Hospice and after talking for a while found out Joann couldn’t drive because of her broken arm, so volunteered to pick up Joann so she could visit Bob.  Called Tom and Karen Snyder, Ed and Peggy, talked to Ron and Dee Zeller set up dinner with Tom and Karen on Tuesday, Ronny and Dee on Thursday, waiting to hear back from Ed and Peggy.  Road bike around campground to loosen up my legs a little, called and had the mail forwarded to Whitehouse, seems to be the closest post office

8/4/09  Road bike for 6 miles most in Oak Openings Metro Park, went to see Bob in Hospice noticed that he is having trouble with seeing and with short term memory, couldn’t remember if he had dinner to not.  Virena and I had dinner with Tom and Karen at Tony Packo’s Restaurant.  Need to pick up some chill sauce to take to California to Greg and Doug. 

8/5/09 Road bike for 8 miles most in Oak Openings Metro Park Virena and I had a quite day, we did do laundry and picked up the mail from the Whitehouse post office.  Received a call from mail service that I had a letter from DMV so requested it to be sent overnight to Whitehouse.  After dinner in the motorhome we drove over to Swanton and had an ice cream at Tom Zeller’s Ice Cream shop.  Tom opened the Ice Cream shop 6 or 8 weeks ago.

8/6/09 My Birthday  Road bike for 9 miles most in Oak Openings Metro Park about 3 miles in to the ride a doe and 2 fauns walked out on the trail just a short distance in front of me, it is great riding in a large well forested park.  Cleaned up and went to visit Bob, while there Bob’s grandson Bobby (who is in the Marine Reserve, machine gunner) stopped in.  Bobby is planning on moving to Austin Texas in the next few weeks.  Noticed even more how much Bob is struggling with short term memory, he couldn’t remember if he had lunch or not, and wasn’t sure if Joanne had been in to see him or not.  Also didn’t remember who had taken the 2 boxes of pictures that were there the other day.  Picked up the Overnight mail and yes my new Drivers license arrive on the day my old on expires.  Guess there is something to be said for timing!!!!!!!  Found a credit union that would accept a deposit and credit it to my account, much better than having to mail it.  Virena and I went to dinner with Ron and Dee Zeller, then Ron gave us a tour of some of the areas south of Swanton, took us past where his business is and where there house is.  Presently they are spending time at Twin Acres in a Mobil home that has an add on room that is located across the campground street from where our RV is in the campground.

8/7/09   Took day off from riding bike thought my legs could use the rest and recuperation

7/6/09 Latest and great of our travels:  Today we are in Myrtle Beach SC and are looking at the Atlantic Ocean out of the front window of the motorhome.  Last night Virena and I were in the Ocean and it was surprisingly warm, the water temperature must have been in the high 70’s.  Sure different from the PacificJ   Then last night we did receive some rain, long after we were in the coach for the night, always nice when it waits to rain until late in the evening.  Today I’ve already been out and helped one of the neighbors with removing some frozen bolts, and then went for a bike ride around the campground it is a verily large facility over 1800 sites.  How would you like to do check-in everyday for this type of campground?  You can checkout the web page here

Slight change of subject, over the last month Virena and I have spent time with several of Virena’s family, cousin in Erie Pa , Aunt in Pittsburgh , then visited with my niece and her family in Winchester , VA. also went to a baseball game with the team they are part owners of.  Then we spent some time at Ocean City Beach in Maryland , camped at Assateague Island National Seashore, just one sand dune from the ocean.  Several times we walked the short distance to the ocean, these days were cool and windy.  Next stop we Bull Run Regional Park southwest of Washington DC, where we stayed for a week, during this time visited Smithsonian Air and Space, Air, and Natural History museums, then Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam, and World War II Memorials guess I’ll have to check all the pictures to see what else.  Oh and we spent time with Virena’s sister.  And then we drove on to New Bern NC to see cousins and visit the cemetery where Virena’s parents are.  It has been such a pleasure to meet everyone and looking forward to visiting again.  I’m going to close for now, more to come.

6/13/09   Guess it has been a while since I’ve written so here it goes  Latest update about my brother Bob, when I talked to him last he was doing better.  On that day he was sitting up and took a drive out to see how the crops were doing at his farm.  Also older brother Bill had stopped at the house after Bob got back from the farm and bill said Bob was in good spirits.  Guess the falling issue from a couple of days ago has passed. 

We have change our travel plans several times but are still “planning” to visit Washington DC and North Carolina .  This is God willing and the creek doesn’t riseJ 

Now for a little history on what has been going on, we left Orange County , California about a month ago and beelined to Toledo , we drove over 400 miles per day, because I wanted to see Bob and find out how he was doing, hard to know from the conversations on the phone.  Bob’s cancer is taking its toll and the prognosis is not positive.  With our travels we will be staying in the general area of Toledo so we can make a quick return trip.

Thoughts about sites we have seen so far:  the trip across the country even though didn’t stop places was prettier that Virena expected, it is spring and everything is greenJ  Our first visit was to the arch in St. Louis, MO.

So glad we did that and went up in the lift.  To check out the view from the top, check out The party going on, it sure is hard to see the peopleJ

T

And

Can’t forget the St. Louis baseball stadium

From St Louis we headed to Toledo .  When we arrived in the area we stayed at Twin Acres Campground in Whitehouse , Ohio about 25 miles west of downtown Toledo , nice to be stationary for a while, Twin Acres campground serves the purpose at a reasonable price.  Near by the campground is a large park that has hiking, biking, birding, and butterflies so plenty to do.  I did get the bike down a road several days between visits with my brother, family reunion, dinners with relatives and friends.  Also we took a day and went to the Henry Ford Museum .  This is Golden Rod, the car that set a world speed record of 409 MPH at Bonneville Salt Flats in 1965 powered by 4 Chrysler 426 hemi engines

Or how about an old tractor

Or one of the biggest steam RR engines

and guess who driving

How about last years model Motorhome or was that the year before?

Or do you like 55 Chevy

or 65 Mustang

As I looked through the pictures I don’t have any of the furniture, dolls, doll houses, kitchens, clothes, Rock Stars and there cars, jewelry, and a round house build be Curtis with materials left after WWII plane manufacturing.  I would say a definite need to see if in the Detroit area.  If interested in pictures from our family reunion check out http://www.mcelheney.com/img/FamilyReunion2009/index.htm there are more pictures that anyone should have to look atJ

Guess this is enough for now... next segment to come soon, Ray

4/16/09

Great news Virena came through surgery with flying colors, breast lump removal, and is 70% through radiation treatment.  Looks like we will be doing a short trip in the area for 10 days or so because the radiation doctor is saying Virena will need to come back for an exam two weeks after the treatments are over.  This will be just to make sure everything is OK.  Then towards the end of May we are planning to start out trip east.  Working our way along the coast of Texas then to visit son Ray, 2 grandchildren, family, and friends in Toledo area and then on to points east. J

We are ready to do some exploring and seeing new placesJ

February 26, 2009

So much has happened since my last post.  Let’s see if I can cover a few of the highs.

1. Virena found out through a regular mammogram that she had breast cancer, she has since had surgery and all the cancer has been removed.  Virena is now almost an expert on breast cancerJ.  Tomorrow we are meeting with a Radiation Oncology specialist to see about radiation treatment. 
2. I’ve been having problems with my right shoulder and final about a month ago went to see a doctor that specializes in knees and shoulders (Dr. Greenbaum).  This is the surgeon that operated on my knee last year.  And the knee is back to normal.  The doctor sent me to physical therapy, and said that I have a frozen shoulder and need to work to loosen it up.  I’ve been going weekly and doing stretching most days in between visits.  This has to be the most painful experience that I’ve gone through.
3. Yes we are still camp hosting at San Mateo just south of San Clemente , CA .  and will be here until the end of March.  Then when Virena has completed her treatments we will be heading east.  Planning on checking out some of Texas , then Branson, and from there on to visit family in Toledo .
4. Other strange stuff, when Virena was coming back to the campground from Mission Viejo , a car in front of her hit a tire and rim on the road and it flew up and hit the windshield.  As you can see this was a very close one almost came through the windshield, it even dented the roof.  Took about a week to repair.  

August 14, 2008

Latest update on our travels.

This week we started for the lower 48, we decided it was time head back.  We find we were ready to leave Alaska and the cold wet weather.  Of course the day we left the weather was sunny and in the 70's the first one we had seen in 2 weeks:-).

So lets talk about some of the things that we did in the last week of so we were in Alaska .  One of the things we did was visit a Caribou farm.  During our visit the caribou we tame enough that we could actually walk among them and feed them, what a thrill.  Virena was so thrilled to get to feed and touch the caribou.  Then we walked down a lane to see a herd of elk.  These were not as tame, we needed to be careful of the male.  The man who feeds him regularly says he doesn't even like him.  Also while at the farm we say 1 buffalo in a pen that was marked stay back he is fast and not friendly, we also saw an adult moose and calf.  What a fun time.

The next part of our adventure was to visit a valley glacier.  And I knew this was going to be some experience when I found out the glacier was privately owned and before we could visit the glacier we had to each sign a release saying we would not hold the owner responsible for anything that happened to us.  Well the experience showed why the sign off.  We were allowed to drive within 1/4 mile from the glacier, then we walked to the glacier.  Then we were turned lose to do as we wanted on the glacier.  Could this be a disaster?  Well lets see, we walked by a couple of places where the glacier water that was melting drained down a hole about 15 feet in diameter and we couldn't see the bottom of, it went all the way to the bottom of the glacier probably 50 to 75 feet, sure wouldn't have wanted to fall in that hole.  Then we continued walking on the glacier and on the way off the glacier we saw an area that looked flat that was sort of a line going back to the parking lot, we that was not the way to go because as we started to walk through this area our feet started sinking, not just a little bit but like up to our ankles.  We found out this area is very soft and I'm not sure how bad it would have been if we continued.  So we walked back up the glacier (ice) to go back a different way.  So much for our knowledge about walking on glacier and trying to find an easy path.  By this time my knee that had surgery this spring was starting to complain.  One of the things I learned about glaciers is 1 they are more dangerous than they look and 2. there is no way I'm interesting in drinking any glacier water after seeing how dirty the glaciers all are!!!! :-)

Next we drove to Valdez to see what was there, not much.  It is a where the Alaskan pipeline ends, while driving to Valdez several times we could see the pipeline next to the road.  While at Valdez we did visit a grocery store, if you ever think prices are high in our area for groceries, I'll help you understand what expensive really is after being in Alaska I'll share more about this another time.  So Valdez is about 3 or 4 thousand people and most of them I think are fishing and work the port there just isn't much else there.

Next on our list is back to Tok , Alaska the last crossroads before going to Canada and heading south.  We ended up spending 6 days in Tok while waiting for mail to be forwarded to us.  According to USPO web page mail should take 4 days, instead it actually took 8 days.  We requested our mail to be forwarded on 8/4 2 days before we arrived in Tok figuring we would have the mail within a couple of days wrong... So we did take a drive to a place called Chicken that is only about 25 miles from the Canadian border.  This area is noted for hunting; when we were there caribou hunting season started and in a month or so it will be moose season.  We drove about 75 miles going toward Chicken and didn't see one caribou; however, we did see 2 or 3 hundred hunters.  The hunters were all also trying to find where the caribou were hiding because the season opened the next day.  While in Chicken we did have lunch for a nice size burger, potato salad, a piece of berry pie & ice cream, a can of soda the bill was 21.00.

So that puts us to the day our mail arrived on Tuesday 8/12 and we start driving towards Washington , 2400 miles down the road.  First day we drove from Tok about 255 miles.  We stayed in a pull off on the south end of Kluane Lake .   This is the first time that we have spent the night and not been in an official campground.  What was nice about this place was our view was the lake and we parked about 100 feet from the water.  This was a great place to start our saying in the ruff.  Then the next day we drove almost 400 miles.  On this trip we got the best mileage that we have gotten since we bought the motorhome one this tank we got 8.6 MPG.  I did make one change to the motorhome that I'm hoping will continue the better mileage, the change I made was to remove the full width mud flap on the back of the coach.  I'll update more on this as time goes by.

So this bring us up to today.  We didn't drive as far today because there was too much of the drive that was construction, mountainous with corners marked as 60, 40, 70 Km (35, 25, 45 MPH) and hills 8 and 9% grade both up and down.  Let me tell you we are diffently under powered for this.  And it can get real exciting going down hill... thank godness for exhaust brake and driving slowly.  How for the fun part of today, as we were driving we say to small herds of buffalo the first one had 20 to 30 animals both of these were on the berm of the road, and yes we stopped to take pictures I'll post these soon.  Then on 3 occasions we saw caribou on the side of the road, I didn't have a chance to take pictures but I think Virena did.  Lets after that and that leave seeing some stone sheep along side of the road, they wouldn't pose for a picture.  And I also did see a deer along side of the road.

July 26, 2008

July 25, 2008

Thoughts about our travel

We are presently in Alaska in the Homer area, yesterday it rained all day so we called it a rest day and stayed in the motorhome most of the day, we did go out so Virena could get some ice cream.  On the 23^rd we hiked for a couple of miles hoping to see wild life but instead say lots of pretty views and wild flowers, here is a picture of wild flowers.  The day was overcast but the picture still shows how many different flowers there are.  As we continue back in time on

Also here is a picture of what is called the Spit in Homer, this is about 2 to 3 miles long and the prevailing theory is was caused by glaciers.

And looking close up here is a picture of Virena with some of the weeds, I think that are what we use to call wild carrots, hard to believe they are 5 or 6 foot tall.

Some of the wild life we have seen recently are the moose here is one with her calf not the quality I would like because I took it through the windshield.  

Virena and are enjoying exploring, but it would be nice if the weather was warmer and we would see more sunshine.  We have meet a couple named Tom and Diane that we've gone to church with the last couple of weeks and played dominoes with a couple of times.  Tom and Diane are from Vermont and are getting ready to head back home the end of this week or the first of next week.  The have reservations on one of the ferries and are putting there motorhome & car on the ferry.

We are planning of staying in the Homer area until Monday then we will be heading to Anchorage for a few days then will slowly be heading south, checking out the rest of Alaska and going towards Washington.

July 8, 2008

Been too long since I’ve written lets see if I can do an up date.

First, we are in Alaska and arrived back in the USA on June 29^th in Tok.  Our first full day was a beautiful day so I got the bike out and rode for 45 minutes of so it had been a while since I rode so thought it would be good for the knee.  Interestingly I was surprised how large an area the small town of Tok , because I rode on the side streets, that are a cross between grave & asphalt, the locals call them chip roads.  This looks like soft asphalt is put down and then stones are spread over the soft asphalt.  Not the best road but definitely better then dirt/gravel.  Yesterday Virena started coming down with a cold/sore throat so we spend an extra day in Tok.  Then on the first of July we drove to Fairbanks .  Virena still under the weather here in, so the first 2 or 3 days we have just relaxed giving Virena time to recover.  While on the road we have been successful with refilling our Rx, just take them to the drugstore and have filled just like at home… well almost there is usually a day wait while call last place we had the prescription filled. 

Overall surprises on the trip 1. the number of people who are riding bicycles with saddlebags and looking like they are doing long distances.  2. the number of motorcycles and a lot of them are towing a small trailer.  3. the quality of the roads, when they are good they are as nice as any two lane road anywhere else; however, when they are bad there can be gravel or dirt that can have large potholes or even worst for the motorhome are the frost heaves these can be either a valley that is 4 to 8” deep and 4 to 8 feet long, it is not unusual to have 2 to 6 of these spaced such the motorhome hits max suspension from one then start on another one and this make for quite a porpoise effect.  After the first one or two of these I have learned to pay very close attention to the road.  Nicely in Canada there are small flags along the side of the road where the problem areas are; however, in Alaska the markings have not been as good.  For credit to Alaska the roads overall have been better than in Yukon , I’m sure this will change since my commenting.  The last 100 to 125 miles before reaching Alaska were the worst we have seen so far most of it I drove at 50 to 65 kilometers (30 to 40 MPH) and this was suppose to be the good road!!!   The bad road was the top of the world and it is gravel/dirt for two or three hundred miles. 

Large animals we have seen on the road while driving baby black bear, Moose several times (so walked in front of the motorhome while driving we made quick slow downs), buffalo 2 or 3 times grazing along side of road, deer, black bear adults, grizzly bear walking down the road, musk oxen, and numerous birds that we couldn’t ID and I’m sure there have been others.

Things we/I have done while in Fairbanks visited the University of Alaska Northern Museum, University of Alaska large animal research center, visited Pioneer Village, visited the town of North Pole, drove partway up the haul road to the artic circle, I’ve taken several different bike rides to see the area, checked out the down town area where we say a history of Fairbanks and Alaska, sign end of the Alaskan highway. 

Weather for the first 5 days of our visit to Fairbanks has been picture perfect (natives say too hot) days 80’s evenings low 60’s.  Starting yesterday we have had afternoon showers and some rain at night.  Today looks like it is going to be a rainy day, or at least so far.  We presently are in a campgrounds that is mostly pine trees with gravel driveways and some gravel in our parking spot.  I’ll be updating the picture pages also. 

This isn’t near complete but time to post so I’ll be adding changing as time allows

Now I know why we decided to do this trip, because where else can this much beauty be seen is such a short time.  And if we can do this I know there will be nothing that we run into anywhere else in the 48 that will be as much of a challenge.

 June 24, 2008

Guess it has been a while since I've written.  During this time we have visited Calgary, See Canada National Parks including Glacier, Ba 

June 16, 2008

 We arrived in Coeur D’Alene on Wednesday June 11^th in the rain, so didn’t see much as we came into town from the south, we did drive by Coeur D’Alene Lake and while driving in it was beautiful.  Later in the week we did a driving tour of the area and found it to be very nice, check out Virena’s page to see some pictures.  During our stay I’ve purchased materials to install a rock guard so we miss out on the fun of having another radiator leak.  That would be more excitement than I would be able to stand.  We also took a ride around Hayden Lake, this was about a 20 mile ride and take about house that are expensive with wonderful views of the lake… certainly out of our price range.  If are interested in this type of view better start saving a lot of money because the prices make Orange County look reasonably priced. J

During this time Virena and I have also been able to visit with one of my friends and coworker Dick Baird who was one of the district’s DSA inspectors.  We’ve been able to spend some wonderful time with Dick, his wife Barb, and son Todd.  Reminds me of what is really important in life are the people who have so dearly touched our lives. 

Tomorrow we are planning of checking out Sandpoint.  There is suppose to be another very large lake that starts here and goes north, this is the 5^th deepest lake in the U.S.   and someone said it goes all the way to Canada .

Wednesday, we are planning on making a travel day heading for Canada and hoping to get as far as Calgary .  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

That all folks until next time…

June 12, 2008

Hi,

Here is what has been going on with us for several days.

Coolant leak on 2001 DSDP 3891 Spartan ISC 330

Towed on Saturday 6/7 from Lapwai Idaho to Lewiston Idaho a distance of about 15 miles by Forest Towing they seemed to know what they were doing, the first wrecker was the correct one and lifted the coach with the tires, didn’t lift on the coach it self.  Tow truck dropped us off in the back the combined Ford dealership and RV repair shop.  The first we saw anyone after being left at the dealership was Monday about 8:00 .  And yes we stayed in the coach, with the front jacks down but didn’t put out the slides.  The repair shop said they were booked for Monday and couldn’t start on the coach until Tuesday AM.  What was done on the coach was to check were the water leak was coming from, the radiator not a hose and to fill the radiator up and move the coach next to the repair bay, the repairs were actually completed outside, this way we were able to continue to stay in our coach.  Much better than having to spend 2 or 3 days in a motel

During this time the service manager, Don, said the radiator would need to be replaced because it was aluminum and they seldom can be repaired.  Don, contacted Spartan and the price of a new radiator would be $2,001 plus shipping, plus RR.  At this time after posting something on the group, I called a local radiator shop to find out 1 if they could repair the core if it was aluminum and an approximate cost to make a new radiator.  Without seeing the old one it was hard to get a cost estimate; however, the owner said he had just made a new radiator for a loader that was 1,200.  So it sounded to me like it was going to be cheaper either have the existing radiator repaired, Don said this was not what he recommended because if the radiator leaked one time it would probable do that again.  After removing the old radiator, it took about 3 hours for the tech to remove.  After removing I could see where something had hit the radiator in 3 or 4 places, and one of these was where the leak was.   I asked if I could go along to the radiator repair shop.  When we arrived at the shop, the owner said oh I can fix that no problem, it is a brass/copper radiator and just a matter of soldering the bad spot.  Radiator was repaired and ready to pickup right after lunch, cost 65 dollars, sure was a lot better than the original quote for new.  The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the radiator back in the coach.  Most of this was completed by the end of the day.  Only thing left to do was install the radiator fluid, replace a hose that looked bad, and I asked to have the main serpentine belt replaced.  The next morning, this would now be Wednesday and we have been living in the lot for 4 days, the tech started installing the new coolant MotorCraft Gold.  While the coolant was being installed, I started to check the specifications and found out it was for aluminum radiators and light duty use only not for heavy duty motors.  So I took my computer in to see the service manager Don.  And we had a discussion about the coolant not being what is recommended by Cummins and being for light duty engines only.  After our discussion Don agreed to remove this coolant and install one that meets Cummins specifications, we not have DELO coolant installed.  The total cost for this leak was $1,257.90.  I’m sure a rock guard would be a lot less money to install so this would not have happened.  We have since driven about 125 miles and the first 4 miles were a 7 or 8% grade coming out of Lewiston heading north on US95.  Good news is the temperature stayed between 180 and 190 outside temperature was about 60.  I hope this helps.  I’ll also include some photos.

Ray McElheney

Coeur D’Alene , Idaho

2001 DSDP 3891 Spartan toed Honda Accord total weight 31,000#

June 5, 2008

Latest travel update on what is going on.  I’ll start with Virena and I spent the last week in a small town in Idaho call Hagerman, it is in the south central part of the state.  This time gave us a chance to rest and relax we felt like we had been too busy with traveling and site seeing.  A little of what we saw while in Hagerman was the Snake River , with wonderful water fall call Shoshone Falls , it’s taller than Niagara Falls , check out the picture.

The other thing that surprised me was the amount of irrigation that was being done in the area.  The actual area that we were checking out was the Magic Valley .  I would say the reason it is called Magic is because of how productive the region is as soon as water is supplied.  In the area corn and sugar beets were being grown plus an everywhere we looked were cattle ranches.  Not unusual to see 400 to 600 head on one ranch.  Most of the feed for the livestock was being raised on the individual ranches.

Also while we were in Hagerman we meet a very nice couple Tom and Eloise at the local Baptist church.  They are doing mission work in southern Idaho working with the local church that we attend to develop additional membership and do minor repairs.

We also visited a National Fish hatchery that raised Rainbow Trout and Sturgeons.  While on our visit we saw some 75 year old Sturgeons that must have been 4 or 5 ft long, these were some large fish.  And we heard there were some others that were 6 to 8 ft long and 125 to 150 years old, hard to believe…

So on Friday June 6 we decided it was time to move on further north and planned to visit Dick Baird in northern Idaho.  The first day we traveled about 300 hundred miles to a wide place in the road with a RV park called Bear Den off the US95.  I thought the place didn’t offer much for the money.  Must have been the price because of the closeness to Hell’s Canyon, see below for more information about Hell’s Canyon.  The next day we continued driving and about 4 or 5 miles outside of Lapwai and one of the warning lights on the motorhome came on.  The light was for water in the separator, when I could I stopped at the side of the road to drain the water from the separator, and in the process smelled antifreeze, and noticed it leaking out of the.  When I saw this issue I told Virena that I thought I would try and move the motor home to a gravel parking lot that was just off of the road.  When starting the motorhome I now have more error messages on the control panel saying service engine and STOP.  I moved the coach about 200 or 300 feet and shut it back down.  Oh and of course it was raining during this time.  After checking everything I could without taking anything apart Virena and I decided it was time to use our emergency road service.  Our towing service is through Good Sam’s and they did everything possible to find a mobile RV service company instead of having to tow… Obviously that didn’t work so…  Even with all this I think the time from when we called until the tow truck arrived was only 2 hours.  From what I’ve heard that is quite good service.  Our breakdown down happened about 3 PM and we were at the our “new camp grounds” by 7:00 PM .  Better than I expected.

And now we are waiting for the RV repair facility to open for business, of course this happened on Friday.  The only fortunate part is that on Friday before leaving Hagerman I filled up the fresh water tank.  Thought we might try camping without hookups.  Guess I didn’t realize we were going to be forced to camp with no hookups!!! 

And as you can see we are “camping” in a corner, this is actually behind the Joe Hall Ford, Mercury, Nissan dealership, that also includes a RV repair facility and a due it yourself car wash.  Yes we are looking forward to having our motorhome back working and continuing our journey.   I’ll update this adventure as it unfolds.

5/26/2008 Virena and I have been at the Riverside Resort and RV park since last Wednesday.  We are enjoying the area in spite of the weather being colder than we like, have had to run the furnace continuously.  What we have seen are Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Grand Staircase-Excalante National Monument, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, have also drove through Dixie National Forest, not bad for 1 week.  My favorite is Bryce Canyon I'm posting some of the pictures that I took, I'll try and not post all of them and totally bore you.

5/19/2008 spent the night in Leeds Utah, at Leeds Campground.  Just as we were getting to leave in the AM there was a hard rain and electrical storm.  As soon as the storm passed through the day cooled off and we had a beautiful day to drive to Hatch, Utah.  Today we drove through St. George Utah, and the city looks like it is prosperous and clean.  Maybe someday we can come back and spend some time in the area.

May God Bless and keep you today and every day.