Sheldon and Mike clearing customs on GAT ramp. Notice boat in background.
Showing posts with label West Trip 04. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Trip 04. Show all posts
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Roger's Summary
ROGER’S SUMMARY
It is hard to believe the trip is almost over – it was too short. It would have been better to have a few more months, but the money has been gone a long time ago so I’d better get back to work. It is a summer I would not want to give up. I would have to agree with the other’s assessment of the favorite places, and the ones we could have missed such as Branson, MO. The natural beauty was the best. Another month to do the exact same thing with more time to hike and explore would have great, and another month or two to go to Alaska – well I do have some things lined up for after retirement now – the next opportunity I will have to do something like this. It was anticipated for many years and now it is over. I was going to do a list of statistics, but since Travis stole that idea I will simply add to his list.
Number of family arguments: one, two, three, four – well lets not count those
Number of arguments I lost: zero (there is one benefit of doing the web updates and having the last word)
Number of great family times: too many to count (it is nice that those were many, many time greater than the first item on the list)
Length my memories will last: until death or loss of mental capabilities (some would say that is not that far away)
Number of family votes: that would be hard to count, there were many.
Number of TIE family votes: Many (Often the count was a tie and many times when a vote was counted it was zero to zero. Sometimes we were too laid back! For the first vote if one didn’t want to vote they didn’t have to, but the rule was if there was a tie we voted again and that time everybody had to vote. If the vote ended up a tie again then the person “running the vote” could decide how to break it. They could break it anyway they wanted to and some creative methods were devised. The problem was a tie was often purposely made by some members of the family to see how it would be decided. That caused some when running a vote to make everybody close their eyes.)
Number of nights spent in a Wal-Mart parking lot: didn’t count but a frequent stop. (It is amazing how many people use them, since Wal-Mart encourages it. We never camped alone and there were up to 20 campers parked with us sometimes. Sometimes there were even signs posted saying “no overnight camping by order of city ordinance” that they were forced to put up, but it didn’t stop anybody from using it and it was never enforced)
Number of nights we got kicked out of “camping location”: one (we got booted out one time in Vancouver, BC in a grocery store parking lot. I wasn’t surprised since there were signs there saying a 3 hour limit was strictly enforced, but that was the only time. I expected more of those. We went down the street to a Costco parking lot and spent the rest of the night. We slept in store parking lots, motel parking lots, residential streets, or other remote pull-offs right along roads. We got campgrounds when we wanted to stay a few days or use the facilities, but apart from the times we were down for truck maintenance we used very few campgrounds. The ones we did use were normally in National Parks. One can save a lot of money by being completely self-contained.
Number of rainy days: we couldn’t remember any until the last week or two. The weather was great, but very dry in the west.
Things we wasted money on and did not use: TV, except for the times Travis and I were dealing with maintenance on the truck and the others were stuck at the campground. CB radio, hardly ever used and a waste of money. Walkie Talkies.
Things we didn’t use or do as much as we thought we would: games, bikes, VCR – we only saw two movies, (not having the expected rainy days was part of the reason), campgrounds, campfires, eating out, extra tourist-trap activities, listening to books on tape (we have one from home we didn’t even listen to – the time driving was filled with other things), reading (me only)
Things we did or used more than we thought we would: Inverter we installed to keep computers charged while driving, laptop computers, WIFI, MAINTENANCE!!!
Things I will remember: great discussions, fun times
Things we wished we would have done more of: games, hiking, biking – (the time was just too short to get it all in)
All summer Nicole has been telling me what I said at the beginning of the trip about her being more of a home-body was not true. She has convinced me – she did not get homesick, and I guess she is not a homebody. She was not ready to go back anymore than anybody else – so I take that back.
The trip is over – Boo Hoo – now back to the grind.
It is hard to believe the trip is almost over – it was too short. It would have been better to have a few more months, but the money has been gone a long time ago so I’d better get back to work. It is a summer I would not want to give up. I would have to agree with the other’s assessment of the favorite places, and the ones we could have missed such as Branson, MO. The natural beauty was the best. Another month to do the exact same thing with more time to hike and explore would have great, and another month or two to go to Alaska – well I do have some things lined up for after retirement now – the next opportunity I will have to do something like this. It was anticipated for many years and now it is over. I was going to do a list of statistics, but since Travis stole that idea I will simply add to his list.
Number of family arguments: one, two, three, four – well lets not count those
Number of arguments I lost: zero (there is one benefit of doing the web updates and having the last word)
Number of great family times: too many to count (it is nice that those were many, many time greater than the first item on the list)
Length my memories will last: until death or loss of mental capabilities (some would say that is not that far away)
Number of family votes: that would be hard to count, there were many.
Number of TIE family votes: Many (Often the count was a tie and many times when a vote was counted it was zero to zero. Sometimes we were too laid back! For the first vote if one didn’t want to vote they didn’t have to, but the rule was if there was a tie we voted again and that time everybody had to vote. If the vote ended up a tie again then the person “running the vote” could decide how to break it. They could break it anyway they wanted to and some creative methods were devised. The problem was a tie was often purposely made by some members of the family to see how it would be decided. That caused some when running a vote to make everybody close their eyes.)
Number of nights spent in a Wal-Mart parking lot: didn’t count but a frequent stop. (It is amazing how many people use them, since Wal-Mart encourages it. We never camped alone and there were up to 20 campers parked with us sometimes. Sometimes there were even signs posted saying “no overnight camping by order of city ordinance” that they were forced to put up, but it didn’t stop anybody from using it and it was never enforced)
Number of nights we got kicked out of “camping location”: one (we got booted out one time in Vancouver, BC in a grocery store parking lot. I wasn’t surprised since there were signs there saying a 3 hour limit was strictly enforced, but that was the only time. I expected more of those. We went down the street to a Costco parking lot and spent the rest of the night. We slept in store parking lots, motel parking lots, residential streets, or other remote pull-offs right along roads. We got campgrounds when we wanted to stay a few days or use the facilities, but apart from the times we were down for truck maintenance we used very few campgrounds. The ones we did use were normally in National Parks. One can save a lot of money by being completely self-contained.
Number of rainy days: we couldn’t remember any until the last week or two. The weather was great, but very dry in the west.
Things we wasted money on and did not use: TV, except for the times Travis and I were dealing with maintenance on the truck and the others were stuck at the campground. CB radio, hardly ever used and a waste of money. Walkie Talkies.
Things we didn’t use or do as much as we thought we would: games, bikes, VCR – we only saw two movies, (not having the expected rainy days was part of the reason), campgrounds, campfires, eating out, extra tourist-trap activities, listening to books on tape (we have one from home we didn’t even listen to – the time driving was filled with other things), reading (me only)
Things we did or used more than we thought we would: Inverter we installed to keep computers charged while driving, laptop computers, WIFI, MAINTENANCE!!!
Things I will remember: great discussions, fun times
Things we wished we would have done more of: games, hiking, biking – (the time was just too short to get it all in)
All summer Nicole has been telling me what I said at the beginning of the trip about her being more of a home-body was not true. She has convinced me – she did not get homesick, and I guess she is not a homebody. She was not ready to go back anymore than anybody else – so I take that back.
The trip is over – Boo Hoo – now back to the grind.
Jolene's Summary
JOLENE’S SUMMARY
This has been a very interesting summer – to say the least. At the beginning I thought it would be WAY too long and I would be ready to get home long before it was time. But actually that didn’t happen. There was a point on the trip I would have been ready to go home, but after a couple days of thinking that I got over it and just enjoyed it. Now that we’re on the way home, I am ready to get there, although I dread unpacking, going in a house that has been unlived in for 3 weeks (the people that lived there this summer left Aug. 3), the yard that will have lots of sticks to pick up before we can mow the long grass, the weeds to pull, etc, etc. I’ve got mixed feelings about it coming to an end, with Travis heading back to Goshen 3 days after we get home, Roger going off to work & soon the girls heading to school. (not that I don’t like time alone!)
Highlights for me were the same ones the girls said, with Yellowstone topping the list. One of the things that amazed me about many of the places we saw was how the earth is always changing – volcanoes, water wearing away rock creating huge, deep canyons, etc. You wouldn’t think it changes but over many, many years, things slowly change and aren’t like they were yesterday. This country didn’t just come into being a couple hundred years ago when the white man came, but millions & millions of years ago, and the history is pretty incredible, with the many Indian tribes, etc.
So, it was an incredible summer & I got to spend it with my five most favorite people in the world! -posted by Jolene
This has been a very interesting summer – to say the least. At the beginning I thought it would be WAY too long and I would be ready to get home long before it was time. But actually that didn’t happen. There was a point on the trip I would have been ready to go home, but after a couple days of thinking that I got over it and just enjoyed it. Now that we’re on the way home, I am ready to get there, although I dread unpacking, going in a house that has been unlived in for 3 weeks (the people that lived there this summer left Aug. 3), the yard that will have lots of sticks to pick up before we can mow the long grass, the weeds to pull, etc, etc. I’ve got mixed feelings about it coming to an end, with Travis heading back to Goshen 3 days after we get home, Roger going off to work & soon the girls heading to school. (not that I don’t like time alone!)
Highlights for me were the same ones the girls said, with Yellowstone topping the list. One of the things that amazed me about many of the places we saw was how the earth is always changing – volcanoes, water wearing away rock creating huge, deep canyons, etc. You wouldn’t think it changes but over many, many years, things slowly change and aren’t like they were yesterday. This country didn’t just come into being a couple hundred years ago when the white man came, but millions & millions of years ago, and the history is pretty incredible, with the many Indian tribes, etc.
So, it was an incredible summer & I got to spend it with my five most favorite people in the world! -posted by Jolene
Travis' Summary
TRAVIS’ SUMMARY
Well, we’re just about back. The stats: 6 people, 18,000 miles, 74 days, 22 states, 5 provinces, 2 countries, 25 national parks, 3 new or rebuilt transmissions, 3 broken springs, 1 broken generator, 1 rear end problem, and 12 days of mechanical delays. We certainly had more than our share of mechanical troubles, but in light of the fact that we saw all the places we had set out to see and had a great time in the process, I consider the trip a resounding success. I think that for most of the family, 2 ½ months was plenty long to be on the road, but it would have been nice to have a little room in the schedule to spend more time at some of the areas, relaxing and hiking and such. But we saw some amazing scenery and had some good family fun. It’s been exciting, but it will be good to get back home and head back out to Goshen. Hard to believe that the summer has come and gone so quickly. It would be hard to pick out my favorite place we saw in the last several months. Yellowstone, the northern Rockies, southern Utah, and the California and Oregon coasts all rank way up there, but that probably covers more than half the trip. I’ll put a bunch of pictures up on webshots from the last weeks. Take it easy and God bless. -posted by Travis
Well, we’re just about back. The stats: 6 people, 18,000 miles, 74 days, 22 states, 5 provinces, 2 countries, 25 national parks, 3 new or rebuilt transmissions, 3 broken springs, 1 broken generator, 1 rear end problem, and 12 days of mechanical delays. We certainly had more than our share of mechanical troubles, but in light of the fact that we saw all the places we had set out to see and had a great time in the process, I consider the trip a resounding success. I think that for most of the family, 2 ½ months was plenty long to be on the road, but it would have been nice to have a little room in the schedule to spend more time at some of the areas, relaxing and hiking and such. But we saw some amazing scenery and had some good family fun. It’s been exciting, but it will be good to get back home and head back out to Goshen. Hard to believe that the summer has come and gone so quickly. It would be hard to pick out my favorite place we saw in the last several months. Yellowstone, the northern Rockies, southern Utah, and the California and Oregon coasts all rank way up there, but that probably covers more than half the trip. I’ll put a bunch of pictures up on webshots from the last weeks. Take it easy and God bless. -posted by Travis
Nicole's Summary
NICOLE’S SUMMARY
So…this summer has been interesting. At first I wasn’t so excited about it, mostly because I only have one more summer after this before I leave for the big scary land of college. So I was disappointed that I couldn’t spend the summer making lots of much needed money and spending good times with friends I only have another year with. All in all though, it was a really good experience that I’m blessed to have taken part in. The weather was amazingly friendly almost the whole time, and I got to see the incredible beauty of this country. And that totally beats working all summer. Besides, now I have an excuse for the whole next year to stay away from the house as much as possible. Just kidding....-posted by Nicole
So…this summer has been interesting. At first I wasn’t so excited about it, mostly because I only have one more summer after this before I leave for the big scary land of college. So I was disappointed that I couldn’t spend the summer making lots of much needed money and spending good times with friends I only have another year with. All in all though, it was a really good experience that I’m blessed to have taken part in. The weather was amazingly friendly almost the whole time, and I got to see the incredible beauty of this country. And that totally beats working all summer. Besides, now I have an excuse for the whole next year to stay away from the house as much as possible. Just kidding....-posted by Nicole
Lisa's Summary
LISA’S SUMMARY
Well! I survived a whole 10 weeks with the same 5 people in the same vehicle, (well, 3 if you count the couple hours in the rental cars) living & sleeping in the same camper, day after day. Now THAT’S quite an accomplishment. & we still sort of like each other, too. No injuries or anything like that yet. I’d say that’s pretty good!
I would have to say that the highlights on this trip were Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Banff, & Jasper, just to name a few. Yellowstone would definitely be at the top of my list. I’d never seen anything like the thermal activity there. It was amazing, that mixed with the beautiful scenery & wildlife. Mesa Verde was pretty neat, too, and a great educational experience. And Banff & Jasper had just beautiful scenery. I also enjoyed Bryce & Arches, they were pretty incredible. And the flash flood in Zion was awesome. But definitely the most beautiful & spectacular sites were the natural things. Which is why, if we could have done anything different, I might have chosen not to go to Branson, MO. In the time we were there, we could have done other things elsewhere. And we should have also spent more time on Vancouver Island as well.
All in all, I think it was a great experience for me, as well as the rest of the family. Sure, we argued some, but for the most part we got along pretty well. I learned a lot about my family, maybe a bit more than necessary. J The mechanical problems were definitely a setback & didn’t give us as much time in Canada, but we made it through that. The weather was amazingly compatible, hardly any rain (until Glacier) that really prevented us from doing something. It’s a trip I will never forget, no matter how hard I try. Haha, just kidding…..-posted by Lisa
Well! I survived a whole 10 weeks with the same 5 people in the same vehicle, (well, 3 if you count the couple hours in the rental cars) living & sleeping in the same camper, day after day. Now THAT’S quite an accomplishment. & we still sort of like each other, too. No injuries or anything like that yet. I’d say that’s pretty good!
I would have to say that the highlights on this trip were Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Banff, & Jasper, just to name a few. Yellowstone would definitely be at the top of my list. I’d never seen anything like the thermal activity there. It was amazing, that mixed with the beautiful scenery & wildlife. Mesa Verde was pretty neat, too, and a great educational experience. And Banff & Jasper had just beautiful scenery. I also enjoyed Bryce & Arches, they were pretty incredible. And the flash flood in Zion was awesome. But definitely the most beautiful & spectacular sites were the natural things. Which is why, if we could have done anything different, I might have chosen not to go to Branson, MO. In the time we were there, we could have done other things elsewhere. And we should have also spent more time on Vancouver Island as well.
All in all, I think it was a great experience for me, as well as the rest of the family. Sure, we argued some, but for the most part we got along pretty well. I learned a lot about my family, maybe a bit more than necessary. J The mechanical problems were definitely a setback & didn’t give us as much time in Canada, but we made it through that. The weather was amazingly compatible, hardly any rain (until Glacier) that really prevented us from doing something. It’s a trip I will never forget, no matter how hard I try. Haha, just kidding…..-posted by Lisa
Renae's Summary
RENAE’S SUMMARY
All in all, I think the trip was a great experience that I will never forget. It was a lot of fun, even though I’m ready to get home.
Yellowstone, Arches, Banff, and Jasper are just a few of my favorites. I really liked Yellowstone especially because of all the wildlife that’s just scattered around, but the bison got a little old after seeing thousands of them. My favorite thing that we did in Jasper was white water rafting, which was a lot of fun. We had been planning it the whole entire trip practically and finally got to do it. Banff and Jasper were amazing and beautiful. I wish we had more time there.
Besides all the maintenance problems, I think it was a lot of fun. I just wish we had more time. We had to rush at the end, especially because of the transmission problems that delayed us for six or seven days. –posted by Renae
All in all, I think the trip was a great experience that I will never forget. It was a lot of fun, even though I’m ready to get home.
Yellowstone, Arches, Banff, and Jasper are just a few of my favorites. I really liked Yellowstone especially because of all the wildlife that’s just scattered around, but the bison got a little old after seeing thousands of them. My favorite thing that we did in Jasper was white water rafting, which was a lot of fun. We had been planning it the whole entire trip practically and finally got to do it. Banff and Jasper were amazing and beautiful. I wish we had more time there.
Besides all the maintenance problems, I think it was a lot of fun. I just wish we had more time. We had to rush at the end, especially because of the transmission problems that delayed us for six or seven days. –posted by Renae
Almost home - tire separated
True to our record we had our last tire problem about 50 miles from home. A tire on the pickup separated - but in about 1/2 hour we had the spare on and were on the way again. What a nice maintenance item to have after all the other more serious ones. posted by Roger
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