Merry Christmas Everyone!

Saturday brought all of the Washington Shultzs to Bonney Lake for our annual pre-Christmas feast and presents.  This year all of the the grandchildren were mobile which made for lot of fun!  Hopefully next year we can have the Colorado and Hawaii members join in.

The grandkids where not big on the prime rib dinner so they enjoyed their catsup and chicken nuggets then headed for their new toys.

Lots and lots of laughs, food and fun.  A few
bumps and a little blood (way to go Cayse) but nothing too serious or unusual.

We even had a surprise visit in the rain from the old man himself complete with a fire engine escort with lights and siren.  All in all, a wonderful day for us!

We wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and happy New Year.

....So what have we been doing?

We got out of Denver on a beautiful sunny day, one day before they got hit with 19 degree temperatures and snow.  We could not have planned our visit to see Lee, Nicole and Zoe better.  Since then we have been slowly making our way west, dodging cold weather and snow. We are currently in Idaho and will hit rain now for a few days but none of the dreaded snow.  We acturally love the snow...just not driving the motorhome.

Sorry about the steaked window but had to get this picture of our highway hanging on the side of the cliff as we drove the canyon cut through the Colorado Rocky Mountains.  This river is a favorite for rafters.  Easy access and beautiful but probably not too quiet with the road noise.

Our "camp" at Rifle Gap Lake, CO.  As we have mentioned before, it is awsome to travel in fall and spring when the camps are empty and the skys are clear.

....and here we are outside Salt Lake City, Utah with the Sawtooth Mountains in the background.  We have finally ran into the rain as we head up to Pullman, WA to visit Lee's son, Andrew.  No snow forcasted so we should be home on Friday without any real weather problems.

And here is Zoe

Far too many cute pictues to post but here are some of the best of our newest granddaughter Zoe Shultz:

Thanks for a wonderful time Lee & Nicole

On the road to Colorado

On the drive up from the dersert floor of Utah along I-70 into the Rockies Colorado we get to follow this beautiful river as it tumbles out of the mountains.

You get the occational lake and of course the glamour ski areas like Vail and Breckenridge.

And all around are these rugged majestic snowcapped mountains.  Colorado remains one of our favorites.

We have arrived in Littleton and will get to see baby Zoe tonight.  I bet she is excited!  I know we are.

Great Basin National Park, Nevada

On our way to the Great Basin National Park, we drove east on US 50 which is appropriately named "The loneliest highway in America".

US50 traverses central Nevada crossing many mountains and dipping into flat dry valleys. Towns, such as they are, are hundreds of miles apart and traffic is non existent

Great Basin National Park is a high desert park and  while the park is relatively small it represents a much larger area known as the Great Basin which stretches from Idaho, most of Nevada and part of southern California.  This area is unique in that all rain and snow that falls within the basin boundaries either evaporates or is absorbed into the land.  There are no rivers that flow to the sea.

We hiked up to a couple of alpine lakes in the shadow of Mt. Wheeler.  The weather was perfect for a mountain hike with temperatures in the low 50s, no wind and beautiful blue sky.  It took us a while to get our stride right for a hike at 10,000 feet but we made it.

There is a beautiful Bristlecone Pine forest in the park. Lots of strange shapes and beautiful colors.

Only two more National Parks to go (and one of them is Rainier - go figure) in the lower 48 states and we will complete our goal to visit all the National Parks.

Crater Lake National Park, OR

We have put off our visit to Crater Lake several times over the past few years. Each time we had planned to go weather was less than ideal. This is one place that demands a bright blue sky to get the full impact. We managed to arrive during a beautiful window of nice weather. Several fires in the area are pumping out lots of smoke but the wind was blowing away from the lake so it was clear for our visit. Tomorrow it will be snowing here, 1-2 inches, so we were very happy to have everything swing our way. We are on our way to Littleton, CO to visit our newest grand daughter (oh yeah, and Lee's son and his wife too!).

Central Oregon has to be one of the most beautiful areas in the US with Crater Lake as its centerpiece. We drove the 33 mile rim drive and with every turn we were treated to a different view of this magnificient place.

Part of the park that is rarely visited is at the end of a road down the south slope of the crater. It is call Pinnacle Valley. These structures were formed over 7000 years ago after the last major eruption when steam jets shot up through the soft ash layer and harded the ash around the vents into rock. The rest of the ash has erroded away to leave hundreds of these pinnacles. Nature is amazing!

Facts:

Deepest lake in the US

Purest water in the world

Max depth: 1943 feet

Avg depth: 1148 feet

Width: 6 miles

Average snowfall: 44 feet

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Busy, Happy Times

We have been home for about three weeks and we have been busy with a 2 year old birthday, a wonderful Father's Day train ride, a visit to Northwest Trek, watched a Loggers' competition and visited another National Park. Then to top it all off, Lee's son and daughter-in-law in Colorado had their first child, a beautiful little girl named Zoe Marie. Life is good!!!

Lucas (Lee's son, Matt's little boy) turned two and loves Thomas the Train. There were many train gifts this year as well as many little kids all running and having a wonderful time.

Including little Anna (Lee's daughter's, Julie's little girl - half the twins). She loved riding around in Lucas' little car. I think she needs one of her own.

Matt's new (March 30th) baby girl, Sienna May. Since we were traveling when she was born, this was our first chance to see this beauty. She is absolutely perfect!

On Father's day, everyone bundled up and headed for a scenic steam train ride up near Mt.

Rainier. Pretty cool!

Julie with Aidan and other twin Joey.

We picked up Millie's granddaughter, Britney and headed for our local wild animal park, Northwest Trek. Beautiful day and lots of animals out in their natural habitat.

Next day, it was the Buckley Logger's Show to watch tree toping competition, choker cable splicing, two man bucking, and speed log sawing. Great fun!

We were beginning to miss our moho so we headed up to the North Cascades National Park. We had Britney with us and stayed at a very kid friendly park in Concrete that had mini golf, big toys, pool and a big pillow bouncing thingy

The national park is possibly one of the most beautiful we have seen. It is not too accessable unless you hike into some of the back country, but the North Cascades Hwy does a pretty good job of providing some fanastic views.

And finally, not to be missed is our newest addition to the Shultz clan. Zoe Marie Shultz is the first child of Lee and Nicole in Littleton, CO. I guess we know where our next moho trip will be heading.

Tomorrow we are heading for the ocean to spend the 4th of July with Millie's daughter and family and 50,000 of our closest friends as we watch fireworks from the condo.

Home, sweet home

After leaving southern CA we headed north for a very quick visit with Millie's brother, Bob, in Sacramento; then headed out to highway 101 and the northern CA coast. We ran into miserable weather so we just kept moving hoping we would drive out of it like we always have. After 4 days we were still wet and we couldn't go up to Crater Lake due to snow (that is right, I said snow) so, we stopped at a wonderful little park outside of Salem, OR and settled in to enjoy some light rain and a little wind. Pretty soon, it was heavy rain and 60 MPH wind with the manager banging on our door to tell us there was a tornado sighted right behind the park and we needed to come in and take shelter (remember this is Salem, OR not Salem, KS). Lots of trees down but our little home on wheels was fine.

We called the trip complete for now and, after a brief visit with Millie's daughter to pick up our mail we headed on home. We arrived on Saturday night, started cleaning the MH on Sunday, Lee split his head open trying to stand up in what was really only a 4 foot space; spent the evening in the emergency room; got 12 staples in Lee's head; back to the house to hose off the blood on the sidewalk so the neighbors wouldn't think an ax murder occured there; Monday, finally put the MH to rest all clean and sparkly and ready for the next trip. Oh, one more thing learned on Sunday other than that standing up in small spaces thing; don't use a hair dryer when you have metal staples in your head...those things get really, really hot!

We have had a wonderful trip - since getting the MH in Feb, 2008, we have traveled over 35, 000 miles and another 10,000 miles in the Jeep on side trips; we have visited 47 states; 33 National Parks and many more National Mounments, Seashores, Battlefields, Historic Parks, Preserves, Scenic Trails and Wild Rivers. We have enjoyed meeting people from almost every state and have many wonderful stories and memories that will last a lifetime not to mention the 3,009 photographs that you are all welcome to share upon request. It was a great trip, but it is also great to be home....looking forward to seeing all the wonderful northwest family and friends.

Southern California

We have been hanging out in Southern California for the past few days after crossing a very hot, dry and desolete southern Arizona desert. If you would like to try an exciting drive take Arizona 89A from Sedona heading west. It is truely a beautiful two lane road that turns into a wild, bare knuckle drive as it climbs to Jerome, AZ. There you are greeted to an even narrower road with rock walls on one side and buildings hanging on the side of cliffs on the other. Switch backs lead you through the town which has hung on to the side of the mountain for over a century. It would be fun in a car (motorcycle would be better) but was a nightmare in a motorhome. Sorry we missed getting pictures since Lee was busy driving and Millie was busy with a prayers and a few "Oh my God!"s.

Even though the Arizona desert is hot, it does lead to some beautiful sunsets at an RV resort we found along the way.

Another surprise was the Imperial Sand Dunes that materialized out of the nowhere. Our road went right up one side and down the other. Luckily we hit this during a lull in the constant winds that created these amazing structures.

Stopped for a nice visit with Lee's brother, Steve and sister-in-law, Debra, who live in San Diego. Not to be forgotten is their new puppy, Violet.

Steve & Deb treated us to a trip to the fabulous San Diego Zoo. Lots has changed since out last visit decades ago. Lots of pictures of our favorite animals but this big beauty took the prize.

Another quick visit to Lee's Mom in Torrance, CA. She surprised us with an early birthday cake for Lee and lots of stories.

For Lee's birthday we headed out to the Channel Islands National Park. This park consists of 5 islands off the coast from Ventura, CA which are habitat for a wonderful variety of sea birds, mammals and aquatic life.

It was a cold, foggy day but well worth the trip. Wish we were divers since the water was crystal clear with lots of caves and old wrecks to explore.

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park, AZ

Several hundred million years ago, this area was a humid jungle with huge juniper and pine forests. Trees fell, volcanos erupted, erosion happened and wood was replaced by stone crystals one small cell at a time.

Some of these logs are over 100 feet long and 3 feet in diameter and look just like the live log until you look closer.

Several ancient puebloean villages have been found in this area from about 1300 years ago and with them, these great examples of rock art.

At the north end of the park is the Painted Desert. Even though we had a very cloudy, rainy day the colors of this remarkable area were still amazing.

Up closer the colors really are brilliant. On a clear sunny day they must really be something!

Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim

You can visit canyons all over the world and marvel at their formations and beauty, but there is nothing that is comparable to the distintive views offered by the Grand Canyon.

We had never visited the North Rim so we settled in to enjoy a coffee at the Lodge and watch the morning sun move into the canyon.

We hiked several rim trails at the canyon, had lunch and then headed back to Zion to hike one last trail that is Julie's (Lee's daughter) favorite.

Julie assured us this was an easy trail that was only 1 mile round trip. Now "easy" for 30 something Julie may need to be redefined for 60 something dad.

Straight up a rock wall (no ladder this time); over platforms hanging from shear cliffs, along foot wide rock ledges with 200 foot drops.....

and finally on to an overlook of Zion Canyon that was well worth the trip (thank you Julie, it was great fun!)

Tomorrow we head for the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.