Heading South

On Tuesday, Nov. 22nd we left home and arrived at the O'Donnals in Springville, Utah later that afternoon. I spent most of the next couple of days helping Laurie prepare for Thanksgiving dinner while Dad got involved in fixing some problem with lights in their family room. On Thanksgiving day there were nearly thirty people at the Ockeys for dinner. Kellen's parents from Laramie, Wyoming were there along with the entire Ockey clan including daughters and sons in law, the O'Donnal family, Leon, Chrissy, Brendon and Dad and I. Laurie had prepared an awesome Thanksgiving dinner and we all had a wonderful time together with football on TV and playing games later in the evening.

 

 

We then spent the next three days visiting each of our three children and their families in Springville and Payson and were able to spend some quality time with each over the holidays. It felt good to grow closer to each family with the time spent. Leon took Dad and Brendon to the park in Payson for an afternoon of tree rappelling. They had a great time and Leon said Dad was a natural at climbing some forty-five feet up into one of the giant trees there. Dad also greatly admires the skills Leon has developed and his attention to detail and safety. Leon is starting a venture in this sport and we wish him success. His web site for anyone interested in learning more or seeing pictures is http://treerappel.com.

A couple views from almost 50 feet up in the tree

On Monday morning, the 26th of November we headed South and stopped in St. George where we intended to visit our former Salt Lake City neighbors, Murray and Collene Taylor, but both Dad and I were just getting over colds and Collene's health was such that she could not risk an infection. Murray was able to come and visit with us for about an hour and we also met an interesting couple from Northern Utah, David Allan and his wife Edna. They were faithful church members and had served a mission. David was a scientist who had worked with the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado and had built a beautiful solar home. We then proceeded to Boulder Beach campground near Las Vegas on Lake Mead for two nights. We spent the day there walking across the new bridge below Boulder Dam and then went into Las Vegas to just browse up and down the lower end of the strip. We got there coincidentally on an afternoon when there was a NASCAR championship celebration going on in front of Planet Hollywood followed by a "victory lap" of about a dozen race cars up and then back down the strip for a few blocks. The roaring engines and squealing tires brought back memories for Dad of his teen years when he loved drag racing. As we explored in the new-to-us Aria Resort we saw some beautiful Christmas trees.

From there we then traveled to Lake Havasu City where we stayed at the Windsor Beach State Park for another couple of nights. While there we took the shuttle across the lake to the Indian casino on the California side of Lake Havasu just to check it out.

Lake Havasu City in background

 The main attraction was the lighted boat parade on Saturday evening where about thirty boats of all sizes proceeded out from the London Bridge onto the lake and then back. The boats were each decked out with elaborate lights, music, people and animation on board. Like most parades there were various themes but the most prevalent was Christmas. While waiting for it to get dark for the parade we witnessed the most gorgeous sunset you could imagine.

On Sunday morning we attended church in the Acoma ward where, after I introduced us in Sunday School, a man approached Dad and said he was Khalil Jones, Dad's lab partner his first year in Electronics at ISU. This was a major surprise for Dad and goes to show how small the world is sometimes. Dad had not seen Khalil for over forty years. From Lake Havasu we continued on to Quartzsite that Sunday, December 2nd, where we registered at the BLM La Posa West Long Term Visitor Area for two weeks out on the desert just south of town.

After we got set up we went to visit Phil Mortensen, Dad's old friend from work at both Telemation in Salt Lake and AMI and our friend from our BMW motorcycling days in the 1980's.

He spends all winter here every year and is all alone at his usual campsite but all his fellow former camp neighbors have reasons for not being here this year. Phil gave Dad some info on how to get added features from our camera with some tweaks from the internet. The next day we walked into town where I picked up some stones to make wire wrap jewelry for granddaughters. Later Phil brought over some of his homemade sourdough baguettes and I prepared a salmon dinner after which Phil helped Dad finish setting up our camera to take high dynamic range photos. Dad is anxious now to try it out on a sunset. We also had a lot of fun reminiscing about good old times together. We have since gone geocaching several times with one found at the top of the "Q" hill at the edge of town.

We have also gone to an art exhibit at the Senior Center,

taken a bike ride to see rock art displayed at various locations around town,

tried out metal detecting with no luck but saw a neat old abandoned rock structure,

checked out the town's Christmas light parade Saturday evening and

attended church services on Sunday with a huge crowd of silver-haired folks. Sure is different from back home.

Summer and Fall Activities

     Time has flown. Summer has come and gone and we just had our first snow after a very hot and dry summer. Last month Leo went for two days, along with Dave and Gene to help Clint Stumbo install a solar power system on he and Beverly's new motor home in Chubbuck. Clint was the manager who hired Leo at AMI Semiconductor back in 1980 and has been a good friend since then. It must have been what you call the boy’s days to play. I guess you can say that Clint and Bev had three great minds working on the project. If there are any mistakes they'll have to have all three to blame. But it went well and they got the job done. Clint and Bev will have a good system as they travel.
     I did quite a bit of canning. I canned apples from Bonnie and Kirk’s orchard below us. This is the original homestead orchard, now about 90 years old. Then I got some pears from Dave and Laurene that I canned. I also made some pear butter that tasted yummy.
     Matt and Leslie came the weekend of Dillan’s birthday on September 30th. Lance and Abri were also here with Taylor. Dillan's wish was that Grandpa would take him on a long dune buggy ride. Dad made memories for all the boys as they went about forty miles in the buggy for about two and a half hours. Notice that Dillan got first pick of seats.

I began to think that they were lost or something. Dinner was well on the way and no boys to eat. We had dinner and Dillan's party followed by a fun evening playing pegs and jokers.

Then as fast as it started it was all too quiet. The hardest part of having company is the deafening quiet after they all leave.
     On Monday, October first we were getting ready to go do some fall camping when fire trucks rushed up our road. We could see the smoke and dropped everything to investigate. We didn’t know if we would have to evacuate or not. We walked up the canyon to see where the fire was burning. It was less than a half mile above us. There are four houses above us and the fire started near the end of the road. The house near where it started was burned around three sides. The house was saved by quick work of the men working up by it. They were doing road work that started the fire. We watched as a plane dropped fire retardant. It came right over us on one pass and the pilot didn’t shut off the valve soon enough. We were all sprayed with a fine red mist all over everyone standing around as well as the vehicles.

From Our Front Yard...Yikes!

The Neighbor's Home Three Houses Up the Canyon

This is the Yellow VW Seen in the Second Picture Above

Did I mention that I was wearing white Capri's? I had to work real hard but I managed to get our clothes clean. I do have a few spots on my hat still. When it was finally contained over twenty acres had burned. In the excitement we forgot that it was Lance and Abri's anniversary. Congratulations!
     We left Wednesday to go camping at Maple Grove Hot Springs on the Oneida Reservoir north of Preston. The fall colors were just exquisite. They were candy for our eyes. We took a couple of rides to enjoy fall colors to the fullest and soaked in the hot pools a couple of times.

One of the Hot Pools Lakeside



Oneida Reservoir on the Bear River



While in the hot pool we could see all the pretty trees across the reservoir. The nights got cold and we found that our furnace was not working. Thank heavens for the catalytic heater we have. From there we moved to the lower end of the Big Springs road near Lava Hot Springs and stayed another couple nights. While there we took another ride but there the fall colors were almost gone. We drove over to the ghost town of Chesterfield. It was closed for the winter but it was fun just to drive around it. We decided to go see Chesterfield Reservoir. Quite a few were fishing on it. We had no poles or bait but we watched a man catch about a two-pound fish. Dang, I would have loved to have fished. Gene remembered being at nearby Twenty-Four Mile Reservoir when he was younger so we drove over to see it also. It wasn’t as he remembered because it was pretty much dried up. When we got back we decided to head home because another cool night just didn’t sound too fun. Dad was also anxious to find out why the furnace wasn't working. When we got home he found that a can of something sticky, stored inside under the dinette seat over the furnace, had leaked down trough, dripped on a sensor and stuck it open. Thankfully it is all fixed now.
     Shortly after we where pleased to receive a visit from our friends from Preston, Idaho, Dave and Nancy Wanner. We had not seen them all summer. Dave was one of Dad's best friends in his youth and remains so today. Their visit was short but sweet. We then went to Idaho Falls for a day to be with Leslie and Matt's kids while Leslie attended a First Aid/CPR class she was required to take for her part-time work. We had fun with Jaxon while kids were in school and Dad spent the day repairing a trombone case for Travis. We brought Brandyn back with us to stay overnight because he had a soccer game at Marsh Valley Middle School the next day, Saturday afternoon. That afternoon LaRinda, Trevor and their two youngest also came for an overnight visit. Leslie, Matt and remaining boys met us all at church the next morning and after church Lance, Aubri and Taylor came out for us to celebrate Dad's birthday. Leslie and LaRinda made him a campfire cake that looked very convincing.

Ironically, Dad had burned accumulated trash and had his first campfire of the summer the night before as there has been an open burning ban all summer due to fire danger. He loves campfires and we are blessed to be able to "camp out" in our back yard but he had been denied that all summer.

Working and Playing

For the past month we have been quite busy in addition to the routine summer upkeep activities. On August 23rd Leslie, Matt and boys came to visit. We had a lot of fun with them, especially watching little Jaxon trying so hard to imitate his older brothers and watching his expressions and listening to his sincere jabber where he knows exactly what he is saying even though no one else does. They went to Matt's parents in Utah Saturday and returned Sunday before leaving for home and we got to pet-sit their bird and dog. Then Gene and Lynn came and camped out here in their motor home on their way home from camping with their family. During the next four long days Dad worked with Gene to upgrade the home entertainment system electronics in their motor home. It was a complex and difficult job but the results are very impressive with a nice 5.1 Dolby sound system and flat screen television. This was after Gene's brother, Darwin, had earlier helped him with a beautiful upgrade to the cabinet in the front to accommodate the new components.

Then Darwin, who has a very nice woodworking shop, helped Dad with a project to build a sliding tray to mount on the dashboard of the passenger side of our motor home to make using the laptop computer a lot less of a strain, particularly while in Arizona for the winter. It is made of oak and, while it is obviously not a factory feature, it does look nice and works well.

Somewhere during the last ten days of August we also restored our back deck. The railing was rusting badly. Dad sawed it into pieces where it had been welded to take it down so it could be powder coated since we are having trouble keeping it looking decent with just paint. The major task was that Dad had to make and weld tabs on the rail ends and drill and tap holes in the posts so that the railing could be re-assembled without compromising the finish. He readily admits he is an amateur welder and he worked at this all day.

The deck surface was looking very bad. The next task was to power wash it thanks to Leta and Tim Shaffer for the loan of their power washer.

The railing was at the painter for a week during which time we applied deck sealer. When we brought the railing back from the painter Gene and Lynn were thankfully still here to help hoist the heavy sections back up on the deck for re-assembly. This was a major job but the deck looks really nice now.

 The first couple of days in September we made a flying trip to Nampa to visit my sister and Dad's family. His half brother, Bill Lewis and wife, Luana, were down from Kennewick, Washington to support their daughter-in-law following knee replacement surgery while their son is serving in Afghanistan. Bill has recently been diagnosed with a potentially serious illness and we have been looking for an opportunity to visit them so this was a good opportunity with a shorter trip. Although we were only able to visit with them for a couple of hours over lunch where we met it was great to see them again and find Bill in good spirits with a positive attitude. And Luana, as always, is so sweet and supportive. We love them dearly and hope and pray for the best.

While there we also visited Dad's sisters, Sharon and Bonnie and his brother Duane and as many as possible of their families in the short time available. I also got to spend a couple of hours visiting with my sister, Jane, in Boise and got to see her son, Lee and his family. As I said we crammed a lot into two days with a four-hour drive each way.

Upon returning home we finished last-minute preparations for a planned trip to Lake Powell with the Gardners and a day later were on our way early on the 5th of September. We have never made this annual trip this late in the summer but we thought we would give it a try. Even though school has started it was surprising how many people were on the lake. For the first few days the weather was most beautiful with warm days in the low 90's and nights in the 70's while the water temperature was near 80 degrees. Dave and Laurene brought their son, Darren, with them but he spent much time fishing and hiking on his own and we didn't see a lot of him. We did the usual canyon surfing, hiking, swimming, playing games, watching movies and just relaxing in general. With Darren's help Dad got to catch a couple of Big Mouth Bass for his first time and Laurene shared a fried fillet from one of the two big ones Dave and Darren caught. Otherwise the usual Catfish feast never happened because all the Catfish Dad caught were small.

The absolute beauty and uniqueness of Lake Powell never seems to get old. Pictures cannot do it justice but I'll try.

September 10th was Laurene's birthday and I took a cake, candles and topping I had brought, along with a card I made, over to their boat for a birthday party. Due to the strong breeze Darren had a difficult time lighting the candles but was eventually successful so Laurene was able to blow them out. We had no near neighbors so Dave turned up the volume on the stereo to play a "different" happy birthday song he had chosen. We had a fun and memorable evening.

A couple days later we had thunderstorms most of the night and next day with heavy rain. We could hardly see out and had to work to stay dry.

View from inside the boat during the storm at about noon

When the storm let up we could see where water had flooded into the bay where we were camped and washed some pretty good gullies.

That evening this is essentially the same view as above while raining

We also got to witness the loud booms, dust clouds and falling rock fragments from a couple of large boulders that fell from the nearby cliffs, probably loosened by the storm. On the morning of the 13th Laurene injured her arm while they were docking their boat. It had gotten pinched between the boat and a dock. I used my first aid training to dress the wound but by Friday morning, the 14th, it was still bleeding a little and very swollen so we decided to end the trip. At that time we were still on the water in a canyon two hours from Bullfrog where we had launched but we got up early and twelve hours later, without stopping for anything but gas, we drove, got through construction and rush hour traffic from Provo to Ogden and pulled into home just at dusk. Laurene had gotten medical attention in Bullfrog and was told that our first aid had minimized the bleeding and was done very well. It will give us something to laugh about because we used a pad on it. The doctor told her everyone needs to keep some on hand for first aid. Between the four of us we managed to dress the wound better than most people coming in to their office for care. Many times in life we take a bump in the road and think I will pay for that. Then when the payment comes you wonder what the heck did I do to get that bruise. With Lake Powell you have many wondering moments, sore muscles, and bruises all over the body. But the fun and beauty of Lake Powell is worth it all. I love this vacation. It is so peaceful.