The Arches National Park

     This place is more amazing than I thought It would be. The rock formations are HUGE. After seeing the first few formations of The Three Gossips and Sheep Rock we started seeing faces and figures everywhere. I wish that Darrell my brother in law were here to explain the geology of this whole place. We got a good understanding of it from touring the visitor's center. My connection is too slow to add pictures right now but I will return later to do it.

Arrived in Moab

Wow what a day. We finally arrived in Moab, UT after  having to pull off the road for half an hour with the other traffic to wait out a thunder and lightening, blinding rain and wind storm. Heard on the news later that it moved across the state from East to West. We are used to the weather moving West to East!  My friend Pat apparently has not published a post yet. I got her all set up to go but they are traveling with 6 other coaches to Branson, MO. Lots of time driving does not leave her much opportunity to figure out how to do the blog. I will wait to let you know when she has her first post published.

We have seen these flowers everywhere all along the roads wherever there is a vacant lot. ditch or field. I call them prairie sunflowers. I don't know what their real name is but they are such a bright splash of color that I had to cut some for the table.

We saw these wind turbines as we were leaving Provo. We came up close to them and there were only a few in this gap in the hills. The blades on them were huge and they were turning slowly.

It was too much mist in the air to see clearly but the hills have lots of vine maple that is turning red. I remember when I was a kid and about this time of year we would drive up the old McKenzie Highway and cut some branches of red vine maple. When we got them home we would stand them up in a pot in a corner and as they dried they would keep their red color as a wonderful sign that fall was really here. It was as traditional a sign of fall to our family as a pumpkin or corn stalks is to others.

The Picture A Day Challenge

        OK, to all of my blogger friends. This is a picture a day challenge. Just publish a picture a day. You may even want to take a close up or at a funny angle and have people guess what you have taken a picture of. This will be easy for LaVon and Snookie but may be a challenge to others.
     My friend Pat has just started to learn about blogging and is beginning to publish. You might visit her blog at http://peachesontheroad.blogspot.com and give her some encouragement. She is a dear sweet friend of mine that I met through our FMCA club, The Rimrock Roamers. They will be staying near Mesa, too, this winter. My chihuahua, Skeeter, is enjoying the life of a princess with Pat's mother and has become the therapy dog at her mom's assisted living apartments.

More Renovation Progress

Today we finished recovering the window treatments in the bedroom of the RV. Before it had been covered with a  fabric with large purple flowers and green leaves on a (dirty) white background. Roman blackout shades and a floor length ruffled comforter with ruffled shams were made of the same fabric. It made the room seem like it was padded in fluffy clouds and purple flowers. (Not really my style)

 Being one that thinks "I can fix that!" I bought a neutral upolstery fabric and had a go at recovering the window treatments and installing  mini blinds. I put a thin patchwork quilt on the bed that blended with the upolstery color and a neutral down throw for warmth when needed.  It all came together to make the room feel much bigger, and to me, more restful.

Oregon Trail

This morning we went to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on Flagstaff Hill just outside of Baker City, Oregon.

There were not many artifacts inside, not like a museum but it was really educational. We watched about an hour movie that was like a History Channel documentary about why families were motivated to risk so much to come 2000 plus miles to try to make a new home in the Oregon Country. Like now the economy was bad, jobs were scarce, businesses were failing and many wanted a new start. The idea of Manifest Destiny was being publicized, and the government was pushing to have Americans occupy the land so that they could claim it for the United States before the British could. Many who started out on the trail were not equipped with the knowledge or skills to complete it. The greatest threat was from cholera caused by lack of sanitation and good water. We learned that he Native Americans were more often helpful than harmful and the wagons were circled at night to control the livestock and give shelter from the weather rather than to form a fort against the "savages".

After viewing what was in the interpretive center we drove down the hill a ways to the actual old wagon ruts of the original Oregon Trail.



Oregon Trail Heading West toward the Blue Mountains



 I remember my Dad talking about a time when he and my Grandfather were going hunting and driving across Idaho. He told about stopping at a place where the Oregon Trail wagon ruts were still visible and walking in those ruts. I thought that was so cool and wished that someday I could do that too.

Well today I did. Thanks Dad for all of the stories you used to tell  and the love of history that you helped to give to me.
                                                               Oregon Trail Heading East

      

First Day on the Road

      We are on the road again. On our way to Baker City, OR  from Redmond, OR we were coming up to Dixi Pass and saw this on the hill ahead.

We turned in to investigate and found it to be an oversized replica of an Oregon Trail covered wagon.

This is the first place that people following the Oregon Trail would have looked out over the fertile John Day Valley and seen the green of the John Day River winding through it. As we traveled further east we found the country they would have passed through was rough broken volcanic rock with sparse grass for livestock, much like the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. I'm sure the valley, the river, and Strawberry Mountain beyond it was a welcome sight to those long ago pioneers. 

I climbed up into the large wagon to see what the view would be like out from under the cover looking West toward the valley from the summit of the pass. No wonder some of the people stopped here rather than go on to the Willamette Valley.

First Day of School

Yesterday was a big first day of school for Emma and Sara.

Emma started first grade and Sara started preschool. 

Hope their teachers have as much fun with them as I do. Kim arranged to be at home from work that day to walk them to school and then meet them and walk them home. She called us and we went to Prineville to get in on the home from school walk. We couldn't stay long but are glad that we got to get in on this special time.

Kim started a new tradition, ice cream at the Tastee Freeze with her girls after the first day of school

I'd say that is a pretty cool mom!

About National Holidays.....

This is how we out in the Wild West, Redmond, Oregon, celebrate National Holidays. Years ago it started with merchants on the main street putting out flags in front of their stores. It has grown over the years. Now people donate flags to commemorate family members who are serving in the armed forces, a loved one who has passed on, or just because they love the American flag and their country.

Flags now line several miles of the main roads North, South, East and West, including parts of Highway 97 through town. As the flags are donated, the miles of roads flanked by them increases. These flags are purchased, set out, taken down, and cared for by local volunteer citizens. The flags have also lined the streets when local National Guard units who were deployed to war zones have returned home. The streets were also lined with local people cheering and waving a welcome home for "our boys".

If the red white and blue offends you, you should probably not come through Redmond, Oregon, on a National Holiday. We will keep our flag, our guns and "In God We Trust" the others can have their change. 

Adios

     All of us cowgirls from Little Remuda/Robertson Ranch got together at Mazatlan Restaurant for dinner on Friday after work. Fran had arranged it as a sort of an "Adios" party for me since I am leaving for Arizona soon. We had a great Mexican food, which I love, a wonderfully yummy red velvet chocolate cake and a good time laughing and recalling a lot of the crazy things that have happened over the past three years. I even received a picture of Billy and I in a western frame. Thanks so much, Fran, for all that you have generously done for me. I have learned so much from you. What I accomplished in riding is a real high point in my life.

     My balance is still so bad that I haven't been riding the past month or so. It is like my gyroscope is all messed up. Balance needs to be almost perfect to ride performance horses because the least little pressure from your leg or on the reins is a signal for them to move over, turn or change speed. I haven't been able to lope a straight line since I got clobbered. When I try to move fast getting work done around the house I bump into things. I fell hustling up the porch steps last night. Makes me feel like such a klutz. At least I can blame it on a concussion and not getting older!

     I have been doing ground training with the two one year old fillys, Twister and Chili. They are really smart young horses and have gone from barely being led by a halter and startling at every little thing to now calmly allowing splint boots and a surcingle (a wide belt with rings on it) with a crupper( a piece if leather that goes under the tail and is attached to the surcingle or a saddle)  be placed on them.  The last few times that I worked them, they did great with a bridle and bit placed in their mouths and then reins tied back to teach them to trot and lope with their heads down. It has been different than riding and competition but very satisfying to me to see them make such progress. I am hoping that things work out next year for me to do ground training with the foals that were born this past spring.

Still a Little Warm There

     Our  friends that live in Arizona told us that it is still a little warm there and to be sure to pack our swimsuits and sun screen. They also included this picture to make sure we knew what temperatures we might be getting into coming so early in the season.   We better check out that the air conditioning units work really well before we get there!

Progress

The RV is at the painters. The mural for the back arrived yesterday. Gizzi got his Arizona haircut. I'm planing the travel itinerary and making RV park reservations. So much to do. So much fun.