Day #42, Roseburg OR to Siverdale WA (Home)

Friday Nov 20, 2009 - Another travel day, from Roseburg to Silverdale (353 miles). It rained all day. The good news was that we did not see any snow.
The following is one of the reasons that Nina can get such good pictures of barns while we are traveling down the freeway at 7o mph. This picture shows that barn photos taken Friday and only on Friday (that's 111 total photos).

Things we saw on the freeway. Someone apparently got a new helicopter and did not know how to fly it yet. And then there was the car that need some minor work.

I liked the "Truck rebuilders" add. And the train as we were going out of Woodland WA.

The animal of the day. They are hard to see but they are cows.

Then "Home Sweet Home" - The End

I guess that now it's time to start planing for the next trip.

Day #41, Fairfield CA to Roseburg OR

Thursday Nov 19, 2009 - Today was a travel day, from Fairfield to Roseburg (419 miles, wow that was a big day).
Along the freeway today.

Nina had a good day. There were lots of barns along the freeway.

Lots and lots of barns. Sorry but there just not much going on as you drive down a freeway at 7o mph.

We did see lots of trucks.

The animal of the day. Cows!

Tomorrow, home sweet home.

Day #40, Santa Rosa/Fairfield

Wednesday Nov 18, 2009 - Today we went to Santa Rosa to visit friends, Bill and Gloria Stubbs.
Photos from on the road (note all photos are taken through the car windows at top speed).

Bill is into making his own boomerangs, so we went to a park and threw several that he had made. He gave me a blank and expects me to shape it and throw it. I will see how this all works out. It was a good day for a home cooked lunch and boomerangs.

More photos on the road back to Fairfield.

The animal of the day. It's not the best photo but it was taken in Santa Rosa in Bill's front yard.

Thursday we take off for home. It looks like lots of rain at home. Maybe we will just turn around and head for the South.

Day #39, Fairfield (area)

Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 - Today we just hung around the Fairfield area. We took Brandon and Terri out for lunch. It is fun to be able to go out to lunch with your adult children. Their girls were at school.
Once again I spent some quality time in front of the Hancock Fabrics store. Lots and lots of quality time. Nina needed some quality shopping time.

The Rickses. This is one very special family. Even if some of them are a little goofy.

Some times Jordan's mother needs to give her a little tune up. But they all seem to get along very well as a group on the couch.

The animal of the day is just a black bird in the Hancock Fabric's parking lot.

Day #38, Modesto CA to Fairfield CA

Monday Nov 16, 2009 - Today we traveled from Modesto to Fairfield via Sacramento (123 miles).
Things we saw on the way.

We visited the Sacramento Temple.

Saw many barns.

Found a real animal of the day at the Temple.

Added a new category - Plant of the day (The bug is a free extra).

We had pizza at the Rickses to night. I got some great pictures of the Ricks kids. The pictures are missing because I left the camera at their place. Ricks photos to be added tomorrow.

Day #37, Fresno CA to Modesto CA

Sunday Nov 15, 2009 - Today we traveled from Fresno to Modesto Via Yosemite Park (240 miles).
The following is some of what we saw between Fresno and Yosemite Park. This tree farm had a tree house up on top of platform as part of the sign.

Yosemite Park was great. The weather was great and the crowds were very small.

The sign below noted that in 1997 the water in the valley was 6 ft above the valley floor. I cannot imagine that much water in that small valley.

We were definitely in farm / cow country. We saw huge feed yard all over between Yosemite Park and Modesto. Nina got lots of barn pictures.

The animals of the day. Yea, we got pictures of real animals. There were about 2 doz. Killdeers birds in an empty lot next to our hotel in the morning.

Tomorrow we go to the Brandon & Terri's.

Day #36, Barstow CA to Fresno CA

Saturday Nov 14, 2009 - Today we traveled from Barstow to Fresno (243 miles). We are traveling farther each day.
Today we went "Outlet" shopping. In other words Nina went shopping, I went outlet waiting. I am not complaining but I think it took about 8 hours (maybe it just seamed that long). Oh well, fun was had by all. I know that because Nina told me so.

On the road to Bakersfield.

On the road to Fresno.

Nina was so happy because we were back in farm country where they have barns. This one farm had a very fancy barn. I wonder how much the cows appreciated the fancy barn.

Animal of the day. As you can see we did not get very good pictures of animals as we drove down the road.

This is a personal post for our daughters. Please do not read the following if you do not qualify.
You remember how you measure the height of a horse, right. Well, your mother saw a cute little girl walk by and she had "NAVY" on the back of her pants. Nina said they would need to put "MISSISSIPPI" on the back of her pants. When she said that she thought it was funny. If I would have said that it would not have been so funny.

Day #35, Las Vegas NV to Barstow CA

Friday Nov 13, 2009 - Today we traveled from Las Vegas to Barstow with a side trip to Cima to see a ghost town (181 miles).
First thing today we went to the Las Vegas Temple. It is a beautiful building at a impressive location. It's quite a building to drive up on.

Then we went down to the strip and had lunch at the Stratosphere.

These are the photos as we where leaving Las Vegas. That plane looked like it was going to land on the freeway.

At the Nevada & California border we stopped at these casinos. They had major dirt bike races going on the the back. It always amazes me where they can put large casinos.

Then we took a side trip to see a California ghost down. The town did not turn out to be much but it was in interesting ride through the country. Many different kind of cactus. Long narrow straight roads. There was a sign on the road that said "Watch for tortoise on road". We watched but did not see and tortoises.

We stopped at Baker CA to see the worlds tallest thermomerter. You just never know what you will find where.

The Animal of the day. It's a horse. I figure if Susan can use stuffed animals this one will work.

Where to tomorrow?

Day #34, Laughlin NV to Las Vegas NV

Thursday Nov 12, 2009 - Today we traveled from Laughlin to Las Vegas (100 miles). We did a final state count yesterday because we will not be going to any more new states this trip. We have been in 11 different states on our trip. We have now traveled 3395 miles.
Laughlin is a town on the Nevada side of the Colorado River that is made up of casinos. Big casinos that require a lot of people to support them. I cannot imagine where all the people come from. It is a long drive to anywhere from Laughlin.

On our way to Las Vegas we saw a dam, Bullhead City AZ, long straight roads, major dust storm in the desert, big cactus, a very used firetruck, and a sign to Christmas Tree Pass (we did not see any trees).

Then there was Las Vegas. It gets bigger and brighter every time we drop by. They are still building new large hotels and casinos. It's an amazing place.

More Las Vegas pictures.

The animal of the day. There were several cormorants at the Davis Dam. And that's about all the animals we saw today.

Day #33, Lake Havasu City AZ to Laughlin NV

Wednesday Nov. 11, 2009 – Today we took a boat tour on Lake Havasu and traveled from Lake Havasu City, AZ to Laughlin, NV with a short trip into California. Wednesday's post is one day late because we did not have internet access at Laughlin hotel. They wanted to charge $11.50 for access and we were just too cheap. That has been the first place that did not provide free internet access.
We went on a boat tour that showed us additional lighthouses and other parts of Lake Havasu.

One thing that was a little depressing was a rock that people use to jump off of (about 30 ft high) where some people have died when they jumped off the rock. There has been a memorial placed on the rock for the people that died there.

The trip to Laughlin was hot, dry and not too much to see.

Animal of the day. We had several today. On the boat tour we saw a wild burro and a Desert Long Horned Sheep. Then there were fish, a very pretty black bird and some very friendly pigeons.

Now, on to Las Vegas, NV

Day #32, Lake Havasu City

Tuesday Nov. 10, 2009 - Today and toured around the city and took a boat ride around the man made island. The London Bridge was build there on the land. Then the land under the bridge was removed to make a channel under the bridge. This made the land on the other side of the bridge an island. I think it would be a lot easier to build a bridge on land.
Photos around Lake Havasu City. The center bottom is the boat we rode. The upper right is our hotel. It is a time share and we went to the time share presentations.

On the boat ride around the island we saw lots of lighthouses.

All of the lighthouses on the island are models of lighthouses on the Great Lakes.

They were trying to have a sailboat race. But there was not wind at all. This was the second day they tried. There are boats here from all over the world for this race. They were all putting their sails up and then just sitting in the harbor.

The animal for the day. A big fish under London Bridge and a Red Winged Black Bird (Nina told me it was red).

Next stop, Laughin NV